


Hyakkimaru

by En2theWormhole



Category: Dororo (Anime 2019), Dororo (Manga), dororo stageplay
Genre: Ableism, Angst, Blindisms, Blindness, Brothers, Deafblind, Disability, Forgiveness, Hurt and comfort, Journey, Nonverbal Communication, Sign Language, anger and revenge, communicate, deafness, language learning, learning to forgive, rudimentary sign language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 30,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25557436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/En2theWormhole/pseuds/En2theWormhole
Summary: An Adaption mix of the anime, manga, and stageplay.After his body is bartered away by a deal with 12 demons, Hyakkimaru fights to regain the body he lost, and learn about the world and communicate with people in it as he does so.Or: Dororo from Hyakkimaru’s perspective with an attempt to fill plot holes
Comments: 59
Kudos: 64





	1. The Story of Names

**Author's Note:**

> This is partly inspired by Rin_the_Shadow’s work What was Lost and What was Thrown Away, because it is amazing.
> 
> I decided Hyakkimaru has skin, but is missing his tongue instead. 
> 
> (And it’s not beta’d. Sorry for the typos)

Jukai found the child on the river bed after Kaname had left. He had wanted to let himself drown in the river. But then a mysterious boat creaked ashore. 

Out of curiosity, he inspected the boat and found him wrapped in fine purple silk tied with an amulet. A child abandoned was nothing new, but the richness of the fabric meant the child was of a wealthy family. His hand shook when he unwrapped the cloth expecting to find the infant dead. 

What he found was horrifying. The child had no eyes, ears, or nose. It had skin, but it didn’t have arms or legs. It was no wonder it had been abandoned. It shouldn’t be alive. Yet it squirmed at his touch and suckled his finger. 

“Do you… want to live?” He asked the tiny boy. 

When he returned home, he inspected the child further. It didn’t have a spine either and it made no sound at all. But something warm bloomed within his chest and he wanted to raise this child no matter how hard it would be. He who wanted to had dealt so much death did not have the right to take this child’s life. He would not deal that judgement ever again. 

To his surprise, the child was ravenously hungry. He ate greedily, and when he was strong enough, the baby scooted his way out of the basin and moved like a worm on the ground. Sometimes he went in circles knowing that Jukai would come for him.

Jukai had learned the art of making prosthetics in a foreign country and though it would be difficult, he wanted to give this child who was so full of life, the best life he could. He began making a brace for the child’s torso. The baby, at a year now, could not sit up with no support and his head constantly lulled on his shoulders or on the ground. Jukai constructed a brace to help him hold his head up and keep his torso straight so it wouldn’t cause any abnormalities. The baby didn’t like it, brows coming together angrily. But having that support allowed the baby to get stronger and when Jukai propped him up, he could sit unassisted. 

Two years passed. Jukai was trying to teach the child how to walk on prosthetic limbs. The child would use a crutch attached to his forearm and lean his opposite side against the wall and kind of hobble and slouch around the perimeter of the house. The child constantly was trying to get out of the house or follow Jukai. Jukai didn’t know how, but it seemed that the child possessed some ability to sense him. He thought maybe he might be able to hear even though he didn’t have ears… but no. During a horrible typhoon, the child didn’t stir. Only when the house shook with wind, did he wake slightly and curl further into Jukai’s arms. 

The child was incredibly curious about the world. It amazed Jukai how much he wanted to experience what was happening around him and be a part of it. He was fearless, and despite everything he wanted to live. He wanted to explore. It brought Jukai to tears just thinking about it. 

He began calling the child Hyakkimaru: one hundred demons. The child was strong and powerful and Jukai believed that he could overcome anything. 

That wasn’t to say Hyakkimaru didn’t cause trouble or throw tantrums when he couldn’t understand something or wasn’t allowed to do something. He communicated with general gestures. If he pointed at something, he learned Jukai might give it to him. If he reached out in a certain way like when he was lost, he knew Jukai would come to him. If he gestured to his mouth, he wanted to eat. But sometimes Jukai had to tell him no, which was a difficult concept for Hyakkimaru since he couldn’t explain why. Like when they were running out of food and they had to ration it. He wouldn’t give Hyakkimaru food though the child was hungry. Hyakkimaru grabbed some of Jukai’s tools and threw them. Or sometimes Hyakkimaru would get lost wandering aimlessly in the middle of the room with his crutch arm outstretched looking for a wall. Jukai would come to his rescue and bring him toward the perimeter. 

Jukai always kept an eye on Hyakkimaru and slowly it seemed to occur to Hyakkimaru that Jukai had some power of perception. Jukai always knew when Hyakkimaru was trying to sneak something. Having no sight or hearing, Hyakkimaru was never exactly stealthy. He made noise when he bumped into things. He moved right out in the open. What was strange was he always tried to sneak around when Jukai was outside or in the back room. But Jukai could still watch him through the doorway. Hyakkimaru would try to sneak sweets and Jukai would come immediately. The surprise and mild fury on the child’s face after being caught was priceless. 

One spring day when Hyakkimaru was four, he was throwing a tantrum. It was easy to ignore since the child could not scream, but he threw one of his prosthetic arms at Jukai when he blocked him from leaving the house. 

“It’s not safe. You can’t come with me,” Jukai tried to reason with him though he knew the child could not hear him. “I can’t let you come with me. You must stay here.” He took the child’s hand and patted the door frame. 

“You took in a child?” A familiar voice asked behind him. 

Jukai turned. “Kaname?”

Kaname stood with a doctor’s case slung over his back and a new prosthetic leg he had fashioned for himself. “Does he have a name?”

“I’ve been calling him Hyakkimaru so that he may overcome his fate.” Jukai scratched his head. “Though I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I can only communicate with him on a very basic level.”

Hyakkimaru pulled at Jukai’s sleeves with unresponsive wooden fingers. He wobbled in his anger and pointed with his crutch outside. Jukai leaned his forehead against Hyakkimaru’s and shook his head no. Hyakkimaru stamped his foot and pointed again. 

Jukai sighed. 

Kaname shifted. “I met a deaf child not too long ago who used his hands to communicate,” he said. 

Jukai looked at him. “But he doesn’t…”

“I can see that but that doesn’t mean we can’t adapt it. He probably just wants to know what’s going on. That’s why he wants to go with you.”

Jukai pressed his lips together. “But he can hardly stand because he doesn’t have a spine. I’m worried.”

“He has to learn sometime. You won’t be here forever.” Kaname’s eyes were sharp as he spoke. He came over to Hyakkimaru, who recoiled as he approached. Kaname looked to Jukai. “Can he see?”

Jukai shook his head. “He shouldn’t be able to. He doesn’t have eyes. Those are prosthetics I made. But he does seem able to sense people.”

Very carefully Kaname took Hyakkimaru’s prosthetic hand and placed it on his chest and tapped three times. “I’m just making this up,” he told Jukai. “But maybe I can give him a name for myself. Three taps for me. Two for you.” He brought Hyakkimaru’s hand to Jukai and tapped the man’s hand twice. Hyakkimaru’s mouth opened in bafflement, and his eyebrows furrowed. 

Kaname repeated the signs for him and Jukai. Hyakkimaru went through the motions again, but then lost interest and hobbled away back inside, using his crutch to locate where they kept snacks. Jukai laughed. 

“He’s stubborn, isn’t he?” 

Kaname laughed too. 

And that was how it started. Kaname never stayed too long. A week here and there. He often went to go visit the deaf boy he mentioned trying to get ideas for how to communicate with Hyakkimaru. They decided to try and use gestures with him all the time. But his lack of sight made it difficult. Though he could clearly sense them, he couldn’t see them or what their hands did unless they were doing it with him. 

Jukai did the best he could to keep Hyakkimaru entertained, but he was easily bored when he wasn’t learning. And eventually he did go outside. The change in Hyakkimaru was instantaneous. Jukai heard him stumble from the house onto the ground and went to help him. But Hyakkimaru came to him, avoiding trees and bushes as he did so. 

He often stumbled into furniture in the house and so Jukai was shocked. 

Then his eyes filled with tears. “I’m so sorry, Hyakkimaru. I thought I was doing what was best for you. But you must be able to sense things that are alive. Their souls. Everything in the house is dead. I kept you blind.”

Hyakkimaru made no answer, but swayed awkwardly for a few moments. Then tentatively he tapped Jukai twice on the hand with a questioning gaze as if to ask if this was all right or what Jukai was thinking. Jukai leaned down and nodded against Hyakkimaru’s forehead, trying to convey that he was sorry. Hyakkimaru smiled and Jukai couldn’t stop the tears flowing down his cheeks. 

This was how it started. Hyakkimaru still got lost, but outside he was constantly around things that moved. He followed and tracked them. He pressed his body against trees, leaning his cheek against their bark to feel the texture. Hyakkimaru could not feel hot or cold or pain, so Jukai always had an eye out for him just in case. There were many days he had to bandage Hyakkimaru’s face since he used his face as his hands. And make sure he didn’t eat anything poisonous or inedible. 

They had rudimentary signs for birds by raising his hand up and moving it in a waving motion. Hyakkimaru was also inventive and made up his own signs many times making vague outlines or what he could perceive. Like that of tree trunks. He brought his hands toward his body quickly to mean give or want and would point to Jukai or the object if he knew of its existence in space. Kaname taught him signs for bowl by cupping his hands together. 

“Do you think we could teach him to write?” Kaname asked him. “I know you know how to write. You could trace the characters on his cheek so he can feel them and then transcribe them onto the ground.”

Jukai nodded slowly. He hadn’t even thought of that. But writing would be more accessible for others. If they could read…

He had seen the way his patients reacted to Hyakkimaru as the boy hobbled around as Jukai worked. They were nervous around him and anxious to get away from him. 

Jukai and Kaname sat with Hyakkimaru outside trying to get him to focus. Jukai poked his cheek to get his attention and Hyakkimaru twitched and tried to swat him away.

Jukai patted Hyakkimaru’s chest and then began to trace the characters of his name on his cheek. 

“This is your name, Hyakkimaru,” Jukai explained. He knew Hyakkimaru couldn’t hear but he just couldn’t stop himself from talking to the child constantly. Kaname probably thought he was crazy. He probably was. He patted Hyakkimaru’s chest again and then traced the name. 

Hyakkimaru’s eyebrows furrowed as he processed what was happening.

He patted his chest and then touched his cheek. 

Repeatedly they were amazed by Hyakkimaru’s intelligence. He learned slowly due to his sensory impairments, but he was curious. He wanted to know. Even if he got bored and walked away, he remembered what they practiced. Then one day, it would click. 

Kaname took Hyakkimaru’s hand and patted his own hand three times which was his sign name and then traced his name’s characters on Hyakkimaru’s cheek. Then Kaname took Hyakkimaru’s hand and patted his chest. 

“We each have different names,” Kaname said aloud. 

Jukai tapped Hyakkimaru in the chest and then traced his name again on his chest. “That’s your name. Can you feel the difference?” He rubbed Hyakkimaru’s wooden hands together for the sign “feel” and then drew them apart for “different.” He gestured to Kaname and then traced Kaname’s name. 

Hyakkimaru tapped twice for Kaname. Jukai traced Kaname’s name. Hyakkimaru’s eyebrows went up, then he tapped his own chest and eagerly patted his cheek. Jukai traced Hyakkimaru’s name. 

Hyakkimaru gestured to himself again and Jukai pressed his forehead to Hyakkimaru’s and nodded. 

Jukai then took a stick and placed it into Hyakkimaru’s hands, snapped his wrists so that his fingers would lock around the circumference. Then worked on tracing Hyakkimaru’s characters in the dirt. It took a few tries before Hyakkimaru could do it himself. And he preferred to use his own fingers rather than the stick… which made sense since he had better tactile sensation in his own prosthetic. 

Hyakkimaru smiled. It lit up his whole face, which was usually either expressionless or concentrated. When Hyakkimaru smiled, Jukai felt alive, and his whole world brightened. 

Kaname chuckled beside him. “You’re always like this. It makes it very hard to hate you.”

“If only that were true.” The smile melted from Jukai’s face and his brow creased as he remembered yet again the horrors of his past. Horrors that had cost Kaname his father. 

Then Hyakkimaru touched his own cheek where they had been tracing the characters with his wooden hand. His brows furrowed and his smile dissipated. He leaned against his wooden hand and motionless fingers. 

Kaname and Jukai looked at one another. 

Hyakkimaru dropped his hand and walked away abruptly. 

“I think…” Kaname said quietly. “I think he might be realizing he is different.”

Jukai nodded feeling the muscles in his chest tighten. He just wanted Hyakkimaru to be happy. But it was going to be a rough road ahead. They really didn’t have signs to tell Hyakkimaru how he was different or describe the things Hyakkimaru couldn’t experience.


	2. The Story of the Cold Spine

Hyakkimaru hated the Inside Time when things were dead. 

Not only was he trapped inside all the time, but even the outside was different. There was… less. And the ground was...thick and difficult. He didn’t understand how Two Taps could move so easily in and out during this time. Or why they needed to be bundled up in so many clothes. 

He rocked as he sat before the energy he couldn’t feel. Two Taps had built a small wall around the pit where they cooked food so that Hyakkimaru wouldn’t fall into it. He had destroyed or ruined several of his legs stepping into the pit where they cooked food. His stomach tightened in hunger. Two Taps always made him eat less during this time. 

Three Taps was staying with them this winter which was better. What was his name? They hardly ever practiced his name... KA-NA-ME. Kaname, but Hyakkimaru still thought of him as Three Taps. Three Taps was always pushing Hyakkimaru into new things. Though right now Three Taps and Two Taps were doing something together. Their hands moved but those movements didn’t mean anything. Stupid movements. Hyakkimaru tried copying them but it did nothing. He assumed it had something to do with their heads since their heads bobbed too. He didn’t like that they didn’t sign to one another like they did with Hyakkimaru.

It made him feel different. And not a good different. 

Like how his hands were different. Not skin. Not his body. But wood. Made by Two Taps. 

When he let his thoughts linger on his prosthetic limbs, he got a sort of phantom feeling. It was uncomfortable, like a prickling sensation within those wooden limbs reminding him of what isn’t there. He often felt it in his back at certain times of the year. When that happened, he felt drawn away from the house. When he moved, sometimes the prickling sensation got stronger, like he was getting closer to… something. 

A hand squeezed his shoulder. It was a cue that he was rocking too much, letting his head lull side to side. It felt good to rock. It gave him something to focus on. Comforting. Taking his mind away from the stillness and boringness. 

He was big now and he knew that they didn’t like him rocking. But he didn’t know why. He gestured toward where the door was. 

As he expected, a forehead touched his own and shook to indicate no. 

He brushed them back and groped for his crutch. He couldn’t sense it easily as it was the same as everything else inside. Then he stood. He didn’t need the crutch for balance as much for finding furniture and unexpected things. In this dead time, his crutch was an extension of his hands and prevented him from falling down.

The one who squeezed his shoulder was Two Taps. Two Taps was bigger than Three Taps. He moved cautiously to Three Taps and pushed at his shoulder, pointing toward the door. There was that moment that both their heads bobbed at one another, their hands moving meaninglessly. 

Hyakkimaru took the opportunity to move toward where he remembered the door was. He found a wall first and pressed his body against it until he felt it give way. The wall that moved was the door. 

But of course as he went to slide it open, a hand squeezed his shoulder. 

This time it was Three Taps and he wrapped a scarf and cloak around Hyakkimaru. Then he opened the door taking him by the hand. Three Taps had a leg like Hyakkimaru and also moved slowly in the winter. Three Taps helped him down from the step and into the thick that was also wet. Hyakkimaru bent down stiffly as much as his brace would allow and put his face into the thick wet. Three Taps squeezed his shoulder and tapped his back to get him to stand up. They didn’t like when Hyakkimaru did that. Something about doing that was bad. 

As Hyakkimaru expected, the outside was emptier. But it was still better than the house. There was small movement which meant that something was far. There were trees but they were harder to sense than in the other times of the year. 

He tried to move forward but his feet snagged in the thick wet and he caught himself with his crutch. Three Taps came over to him and ruffled his hair. He swatted him away, embarrassed, and pushed Three Taps playfully. 

Unintentionally, Three Taps tumbled into the thick wet. Hyakkimaru’s lips twitched. Sometimes he didn’t know his own strength. He waded through the thick wet toward the trees trying as best to use his crutch to find any unexpected obstacles.

Something hit him in the back of the head softly. The thick wet. 

He turned. 

Three Taps was standing, shaking. He leaned down and did something. Then more thick wet smacked Hyakkimaru in the chest. Mouth gaping, he tried to process what was happening. Three Taps was gathering the thick wet and throwing it at Hyakkimaru. 

Anger and irritation. Three Taps was like this sometimes. Always doing weird things. 

But the shaking… that was usually good?

Dropping his crutch, Hyakkimaru tentatively bent over and tried to gather the thick wet in his hands. When he thought he had enough, he touched his cheek to his hands to check. It was there. 

He threw it bringing his hands over his head. But then he lost his balance and tumbled into the thick wet. Three Taps was shaking harder and it made Hyakkimaru’s lips twitch more like they did with good feelings. He wanted to shake like Three Taps though. He tried, but he wasn’t sure if he did it right. 

His back pricked and tingled. 

He turned. 

The Bad was near. Different from all other things. The Bad always came for him. 

Two Taps had made a few disappear with the Still Thing. Still Things didn’t move like other living things. They didn’t sway in the wind like trees. Or move about like he did or Three Taps. Two Taps often used Still Things to chop trees and cook food. 

Three Taps stopped shaking and began moving toward Hyakkimaru. 

The Bad was coming. 

Hyakkimaru reached down searching desperately for his crutch. It was lost in the thick wet. Two Taps had shown him how to defend himself with it after the first time they came for him. His back was burning. 

The Bad leaped.

He found his crutch! Locking his fingers around it, he jabbed toward the Bad. 

It exploded and disappeared. He kept jabbing his crutch at where he thought it was. He didn’t want it to get Two Taps or Three Taps. Hands grabbed his shoulders, pulling him away, when a horrible sensation erupted in his back. He tensed up, his whole body shaking with bad shakes. Desperately, he tried to reach before him, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t even twist with the brace. 

Something… something was crawling in his back. Stabbing into his back. It moved his skin and raged against the brace. Finally, he managed to break it off with his arms and rolled onto his front breathing in the thick wet. 

Suddenly it stopped. 

Nothing moved for a long moment as he took ragged breaths. 

Hands pressed against his back. Searching for injuries, he knew. But… he felt better. The phantom prickling was gone. And his neck, which usually lulled beyond his control, was...different. He turned his head left and right. Shaking it like Three Taps and Two Taps. He had never done that before. 

His back no longer sagged against his muscles, but worked with them. 

He sat up. 

What… had happened?  


…  


They brought Hyakkimaru inside to inspect his back. 

“That’s impossible,” Jukai mumbled as they sat Hyakkimaru by the fire. They gently pulled off his cold and wet kimono and cloak. 

Kaname was holding the broken back brace. “He grew a spine! You can see the bones now under the skin.”

Jukai tentatively touched the bulging bones. Hyakkimaru shivered at his touch. The demons were drawn to Hyakkimaru. He assumed it was because Hyakkimaru had a strange power about him. The ability to sense living things that drew the demons to him. 

Both he and Kaname knew this and had fought many times over the fact that Jukai had decided to teach Hyakkimaru the sword. Kaname had accused him of being both too overprotective and foolish. But Hyakkimaru had been good at sparring with the wood katana and obviously could translate those skills using whatever he had at his disposal. 

But a new darker thought popped into his head now. 

“Kaname,” he said quietly as the other went to retrieve dry and warm clothes for Hyakkimaru to change into. 

“Yes?” He helped Hyakkimaru into the new clothes, wrapping a blanket about his shoulders. Hyakkimaru was stretching his new spine and turning his head curiously. Testing this new body part. 

“Demons don’t usually return whole body parts for defeating them…” Jukai said. “And deals with demons usually involve someone losing something…” He couldn’t look at either Kaname or Hyakkimaru. 

“What are you saying?”

“What if Hyakkimaru wasn’t born the way he is? What if his body was given away as part of a deal with a demon. Or many demons as the case may be…”

“Who would do such a thing?”

“Someone who was resolved to go to hell.”

They both stared at Hyakkimaru for a long moment, lost in thought. The boy in question laid down before the fire with a strange look on his face. Sightless eyes staring at nothing as he fell asleep with them open. 

“How do we tell him?”

Jukai looked up at Kaname.

“We need to tell him that demons may still have his body. What happens now will be his choice.” Kaname’s jaw was set and his eyes dared Jukai to say something against him. But Jukai just looked toward Hyakkimaru instead. 

His heart ached.

He knew what would happen.


	3. The Story Of Fish

Without the need of the back brace, Hyakkimaru could get around more easily. His balance was better and there were times that he no longer needed the crutch for balance. Sometimes he found sticks to sweep the ground where he couldn’t sense anything. He didn’t mind bumping into things. It didn’t “hurt” as Jukai would ask. But he didn’t like falling down. 

When the trees began to be easier to sense, Three Taps, Ka-Na-Me, left. Hyakkimaru knew he was fighting with Jukai by the way their bodies shifted. But he didn’t know why. But he was distracted by the ability to move and once he could go outside more freely, he wanted to be there. He found that he could run too through the woods where he could sense obstacles better.

He stood at the edge of the trees when Three Taps came up behind him and squeezed his shoulder. Hyakkimaru didn’t like it when he left. He reached out and touched Three Taps’ shoulder trying to squeeze it like he did to Hyakkimaru. He stared at his hands. Different. More like trees. Sometimes he could sense them, sometimes not. When he couldn’t, he usually needed to change the prosthetic. 

Three Taps took his hand and shook it to pull Hyakkimaru out of his thoughts. He placed Hyakkimaru’s hand on Three Taps’ chest and then gestured toward the house. Hyakkimaru knew he would come back. He always did. 

He thought about his back and turned toward the empty space between the trees where Three Taps usually arrived and left from. He gestured down it and then gestured to himself, tapping his chest twice. Couldn’t he go too? His prosthetics pricked with that phantom sensation. 

Three Taps didn’t like putting his forehead against Hyakkimaru’s like Two Taps did. Two Taps’ hand cupped Hyakkimaru’s chin and shook for no. Hyakkimaru’s shoulders slumped. He took Hyakkimaru’s hand and gestured toward the house. Then he ruffled Hyakkimaru’s hair and left. 

Hyakkimaru watched him disappear into the trees and world beyond before turning back to the house. He needed his stick. The one he fought with if he wanted to venture out into the forest. As usual, he tripped over the stone step he forgot about on the way into the house, distracted with how comfortable his back felt. He kicked the rock in frustration and went into the house. He thought he had left it by the door, but when he felt for it, it wasn’t there. The stick was old and had faded so it was getting harder to find. Most things in the house were faded or empty presences. Two Taps must have been cleaning. Sometimes he forgot that Hyakkimaru couldn’t find things as easily as Two Taps could. 

He moved along the wall searching for it. He found the Still things for cooking, and other still things he didn’t know what they were. There were three of them and they were long and thin. But not his stick. He knocked something, but didn’t know what it was.

He walked around the perimeter of the house and couldn’t find it. He went back outside searching for Two Taps. But he couldn’t sense him. He clapped his hands together. He had learned that sometimes when he did that Two Taps would appear. He did it several times, but Two Taps didn’t come. 

Maybe Two Taps was gathering more tree parts for the pit? Hyakkimaru knew generally the route Two Taps took to do that. Two Taps liked to follow the moving wet. They bathed there sometimes and washed clothes. Hyakkimaru carefully got down from the step avoiding that stupid rock as best he could tapping the ground with his foot to make sure it was solid. Then he moved toward the empty space between the trees where the flowing wet was. He had to make sure he hadn’t accidentally followed Three Taps, by walking in the wet and making sure it was there. He could sense the things that lived in the wet: fish. He made the sign moving his right hand beneath his left in a wiggling manner like the way the fish moved. 

He carefully walked beside the river, checking the ground before he stepped. Sometimes he bumped into larger rocks, but it was mostly clear. He clapped his hands, turning his face to try to find Two Taps. All this for his stick… maybe he should just make a new one? But now he had started to worry about Two Taps. 

He clapped his hands harder. 

…

Jukai watched Hyakkimaru from the trees. He had been gathering firewood. He would make himself known to Hyakkimaru in a moment, but he wanted to know how Hyakkimaru would handle a situation on his own. Kaname had been right that he was trying to shield Hyakkimaru from the world. 

Could anyone blame him? He used to be a part of all the worst parts of the world. But Hyakkimaru hadn’t been spared. Demons came for him. And now Jukai was realizing that Hyakkimaru had had almost no interaction with other people other than Kaname and Jukai. People who wouldn’t be able to communicate with him and who believed that having disabilities were signs of omens. Had it been wrong about everything? He couldn’t do anything right. 

And now he felt guilty about hiding between the trees were he knew Hyakkimaru would have a harder time locating him. 

The sound of the clapping was a stabbing pain in his chest. 

“Hey!” A voice called out ripping Jukai from his thoughts. 

A young boy ran over to Hyakkimaru. One of the boys from the nearby village. He was a rice farmer’s son. Jukai moved to gather his wood and come for Hyakkimaru. What had he been thinking hiding here? He knew that people from the village came to hunt up here when winter was over. The boy had a bow slung over his shoulder. 

“Are you lost?” The boy asked Hyakkimaru who didn’t move. 

Jukai froze watching to know what he would do.

Hyakkimaru tensed but then gave a big gesture like he was outlining Jukai’s silhouette, and then turned his head vaguely. The boy looked confused. 

“Are you looking… for someone?” The boy asked. “Can you hear me? Why are your arms wooden?”

Hyakkimaru, of course, could not hear or answer the boy’s questions. He made the gestures again. The boy turned looking around and then spotted Jukai. 

“Oí!” The boy called. “Is he looking for you?”

Jukai quickly moved out from the trees. “Yes! Thank you for helping him.”

The boy beamed proudly. “My mama always tells me to help others. She says if we don’t, then no one will.”

Hyakkimaru shifted toward Jukai. His brows furrowed, and Jukai knew he was irritated. 

“Can he not speak?” The boy asked. 

“No,” Jukai said.

“Why not?”

“He was born that way,” Jukai answered and Hyakkimaru tapped his arm twice with a little too much force. He was mad. “But he seems to manage, doesn’t he? You understood him.”

The boy hummed and looked unconvinced. But Jukai had a growing feeling that Hyakkimaru would be all right. That coddling him was only working against him. 

A voice called in the forest. 

“Oh that’s my dad! Bye!” The boy ran off. 

Hyakkimaru tapped Jukai again and Jukai squeezed his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Hyakkimaru. Let’s go home.”

Jukai took his hand and Hyakkimaru let him lead the way home. Hyakkimaru’s face was still upset when they got back. He made the sign for his stick. Jukai shook his head no against Hyakkimaru’s. 

“I got rid of it,” he told him making the sign for stick and the sign for gone/finished by shaking both hands at the same time.

Hyakkimaru’s mouth opened angrily. He brought his hands toward his chest for “want/need.”

“You’re going to have to make a choice like Kaname says,” Jukai said and sat him down by where he had two naked blades and his old samurai sword. Hyakkimaru had knocked over the new arms Jukai had been making. 

He made the sign for sit, patting the floor, and pulling on Hyakkimaru’s hand. 

Hyakkimaru sat reluctantly.

Jukai tapped his back, pressing his fingers against Hyakkimaru’s new spine. Hyakkimaru jolted slightly. Then Jukai touched Hyakkimaru’s prosthetic arms and legs. “Hyakkimaru, I think you may be able to regain your body if you wish it.” He tapped his arms again and gestured for outside. 

Hyakkimaru gave a very tiny nod. His expression smoothed. He tapped on his own arms, then rubbed his hands together for “feel” and gestured away. Jukai’s heart tightened. Of course, Hyakkimaru knew. Deals with demons left scars. Some visible and some not. Hyakkimaru’s soul was probably intertwined with the ones who have his body as they ate those parts of his soul.

It wasn’t the flesh they wanted usually, but the soul within. 

“I have something for you, then,” Jukai said and brought Hyakkimaru’s hand to the swords. He tapped the swords and then his forearm. “I will fasten them to your arms so you don’t have to worry about your hands failing you in a critical moment.” He made the motion for cutting and Hyakkimaru nodded. He hoped that he understood. He thought Hyakkimaru did.

They sat together for a long time without signing and wondered what would happen. 

Eventually Jukai began to cook fish in the fire. Hyakkimaru moved more blindly than usual toward him with his hand outstretched. He didn’t normally do that anymore now that he was older. Nevertheless, Jukai reached out and took his hand to bring him down beside him. 

Jukai blew on the food to cool it down and give it to Hyakkimaru. He seasoned it even though he knew Hyakkimaru couldn’t taste it. But perhaps one day he would be able to. He laughed thinking of all the times Hyakkimaru had tried to eat raw fish straight from the river. 

Bumping Hyakkimaru’s shoulder with his own to prompt him to hold out his hand for food, he handed Hyakkimaru the fish. The night was quiet save for the crackling of the fire. Jukai stared at the dancing shadows in the corners of the room.

Hyakkimaru suddenly dropped the fish and stood straight up angling his face at the rafters. 

“What is it?” Jukai asked, standing. There was nothing up there that he could—

In a split second something dived at Hyakkimaru. Jukai threw himself forward and it’s teeth bit into his shoulder. Crying out, he turned to Hyakkimaru to shoo him away. But Hyakkimaru had grabbed Jukai’s old sword, the one that had committed unspeakable atrocities.

“No!” Jukai kicked the snarling demon away.

He thought Hyakkimaru would run at the demon, but he made his way to the door slamming against it in his rush. He stumbled down the step. 

Of course, Jukai thought. He can’t see in the house.

The demon pursued rushing past Jukai without a thought.

Hyakkimaru didn’t move and Jukai couldn’t see as he clutched his shoulder in pain. There was a wretched roar from there dying beast and the clang of the sword. He forced himself to his feet and outside.

Hyakkimaru continued to stab the carcass.

He ran to Hyakkimaru. “That’s enough! That’s enough, Hyakkimaru! It’s dead!” Then Hyakkimaru’s mouth gaped and his body shook like before. He reached toward Jukai’s injured shoulder and they fell together in pain.

Jukai’s eyes widened as Hyakkimaru’s mouth widened in a silent scream and a tongue grew right before his eyes! It wiggles between his teeth. Hyakkimaru tried to stick his bloody hands in his mouth to check, but Jukai stopped him.

He brought him back inside, heaving with his injured shoulder. Hyakkimaru seemed to sense something was off. He patted Jukai questioningly. 

Jukai went for their basin of water and began to dress his wound before he would clean the blood from Hyakkimaru. Hyakkimaru kept his hands lightly over Jukai’s as he wrapped his shoulder. His expression was heartbreaking while his tongue moved experimentally in his mouth.

“It’s not your fault,” Jukai said aloud, tightening the bandages. “You don’t make them come. I’m not the fighter I once was.” There was a moment of silence between them. 

Hyakkimaru gestured away and then at Jukai’s shoulder, and then at his mouth and back.

“I know. They’re out there. My guess is probably true that your body was taken by demons,” Jukai said and nodded against Hyakkimaru’s forehead.

Hyakkimaru nodded back.

“I can’t come with you,” he mumbled against the boy’s head. “I’ll only get in the way. I see that now.”

Hyakkimaru again touched Jukai’s injured shoulder gently. Jukai then took Hyakkimaru’s bloody prosthetic hands and stared at the worn wooden fingers. 

“I couldn’t do anything for you,” Jukai said. “Except teach you how to kill.” He went to remove Hyakkimaru’s arm.

Hyakkimaru pulled back but Jukai rubbed his back encouragingly. 

“It’s okay. I’m going to put on the new ones.” He gestured to the other arms. Hyakkimaru probably could sense them since they were just carved from the tree. 

Hyakkimaru didn’t like taking off his prosthetics in general but particularly his arms. Jukai remembered trying to bathe him after he had finally gotten used to them and their purpose. He understood. They were his independence. When Jukai removed them, Hyakkimaru’s expression would be tense and concerned. 

Like it was now. Very gently, Jukai removed the arms and massaged the stumps with oil and fresh water. “It’s important that you clean these too when you bathe,” he said tapping the stumps and making a more exaggerated washing movement. 

Hyakkimaru didn’t react. 

Then he carefully put on the new arms and slide the naked blades into place. Hyakkimaru moved them experimentally. Jukai went through the removal of the forearm with him to unsheathe the blades. “But I will give you my old sword for the day when you don’t need these anymore.”

Hyakkimaru changed out of his bloodied kimono. The only one Jukai had left clean was one he picked up at a market: black with a boat like pattern on it. They went back to the fire and he handed Hyakkimaru the fish.

As Hyakkimaru bit into the fish, his eyes bulged. He gestured excitedly at the fish for Jukai to notice.

Jukai felt his eyes prickle with tears though he laughed. “That’s the sense of taste, Hyakkimaru. That’s what the tongue does.” He patted Hyakkimaru’s mouth. “It’s good, right?”

Hyakkimaru ate the fish ravenously, marveling at each bite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think.
> 
> Can’t promise all chapters will come this quickly. It’s just what’s happening now.


	4. The Story of The Beginning of the Journey

Hyakkimaru left the next day early in the morning. He woke before Two Taps began moving and stood by him for a long moment. The tingling in his prosthetics had been growing steadily worse since he had recovered that thing in his back. 

He wanted to touch Two Taps and try to convey all that he couldn’t. He didn’t have the words or the expression to convey how he felt. Big warm feelings in his chest. And the thought of not being around Two Taps was almost overwhelming. Hyakkimaru had never been alone. He was always there. Always comforting and helping. But he was afraid that Two Taps wouldn’t want him to go. Or that he would come with him and get hurt again. 

Hyakkimaru didn’t want him to get hurt again. He wouldn’t let that happen. And when the tingling finally ended, he would come back if he could. 

So he took Two Tap’s still thing that he used to kill the demon, the things he wore in the Dead Time, and left. He knew how to tuck it into his belt around his waist, but he held it like he would his stick. Finding the edge of the step, he didn’t trip as he stepped out of the house and turned the direction of where Ka-Na-Me came and went. 

And walked until everything he knew was behind him. 

He found himself drifting toward the trees and things he could sense though this empty path between them was mostly flat. He moved a little slower than he would along the path along the river. This was new after all. 

Sometimes other things like Two Taps and Ka-Na-Me went by him but they didn’t stop or bother him. He thought of the little one in the river. He wondered what they were doing. When he was little he tried following four-legged things in the forest, but they didn’t want to stop and sign to him either. 

Why did only Two Taps and Ka-Na-Me sign?

His stomach growled and so he went into the trees searching for bushes that had little dots that were the same as the things that moved. He could eat those things. Two Taps had shown him what he could eat in the forest when they went walking together. 

There!

He crouched and popped them in his mouth—Whoa! He forgot the explosion of sensation on his tongue already! He ate slowly, swishing the food in his mouth to experience it better. 

He sighed happily.   
He sat back and turned his head. Then his shoulders slumped. Two Taps was always prompting him to be aware of his direction. Which way had he come from? He had been so focused on searching for the food. He turned his head searching for a gap in the trees. Or something…

He couldn’t sense it.

He stood up and decided that he would go the direction that increased the tingling in his limbs. He stood a few experimental steps in a few different directions and then decided. He tucked his still thing away and reached out with his hands to touch the trees. Two Taps had shown him how to unsheathe his forearms using his mouth or his neck before they had gone to bed. Hyakkimaru had been so excited about it. He was excited that he wouldn’t have to hold that still thing. Sometimes his hands didn’t do what they were supposed to when they got old. This would be better. 

He let his head lull side to side as he walked enjoying the feeling of being able to do so. His brace kind of prevented him from moving his head like this. His hair swished behind him. The wind felt good on his face, He loved being outside and it was still the good time of year. 

What’s that?

There was something different in the distance. Lots of dots like Two Taps moving. Distracted he walked toward it and stumbled into the empty space between the trees. There was a tingling in his right leg as he approached the gathering of dots. Those dots got bigger as he kept walking. Some were obscured by trees but he kept following the empty gap. 

Eventually he came upon two beings like Two Taps but smaller. The smaller one lagged behind the other. Hyakkimaru was transfixed as they moved. What were they doing? Then the smaller one slipped and began to fall toward an empty space below. Hyakkimaru grabbed him and set him on the path. 

He gestured to the ground to tell him to be careful where he stepped. Hyakkimaru stamped the ground. Then he turned and walked when the little being didn’t do anything. The bigger one came running toward the smaller one. He thought of Two Taps. Maybe that bigger being was the smaller one’s Two Taps. 

He suddenly became aware of how many beings like Two Taps and Ka-Na-Me were. None stopped for him, but ignored him if he stopped. It gave him a bad feeling in his chest but he didn’t know why. He began to realize that they stopped for one another. Their hands moved senselessly like when Two Taps and Ka-Na-Me were bobbing their heads. He bobbed his head but still no one stopped for him.

There was a lot of empty space as he got close and he was hesitant to go into where all the beings seemed to be floating and moving over nothing. They didn’t trip or fall down like that small one did, but moved easily. Like how Two Taps moved inside the house. Hyakkimaru felt another bad feeling. He knew if he went closer to them, he might trip. He had moved in empty space before. There were things that always snuck up on him from the ground. It was like the river. 

He wanted to ask Two Taps but he wasn’t sure if he even knew what to ask or how. 

That;s when he noticed it. 

Bad thing. 

It moved in the lower empty space slowly. Small, but growing bigger as it neared the gathering area. 

Hyakkimaru moved toward the empty space and realized it was a river. He didn’t want it to come to the gathering place where it could hurt people. He moved ahead along the river. He stumbled into something and discovered it was an old thing that went across the river. He spent some time exploring what it was. It shook when he stepped on it. The thing was moving toward him.

The tingling in his right leg got stronger. 

He would wait here. He knew it would come for him. 

This was why he had to get away from Two Taps. What if this had been coming down the river to where they lived. This was exactly why Hyakkimaru left. He sat, shunted out of the way of the beings and waited. 

Across the river there were a few beings. A group of big ones around a little small one. He wondered what they were doing. The big ones flickered with bad feeling. Hyakkimaru didn’t like them. And he didn’t like how the little one was moving. It looked like it was in trouble. He stood to try to do something when he felt the Bad move faster. 

He turned and monitored it as it approached. 

Those beings across where in danger. He moved his hand to unsheathe his Two Tap’s still thing at his belt with the back of his hand. 

The Bad drew itself up. Big! It reached out and swallowed several of the beings on the bank. Hyakkimaru panicked, mouth opening. He pulled the still thing. But there was no time. Using his neck, he unsheathed his forearm and jumped as the Bad grabbed the small being. He sliced the little being from the Bad’s grip. Little being fell and Hyakkimaru used his back to project him toward the ground. 

He landed in the water. 

The Bad moved against him and he turned toward the shaking structure. He ran toward it, jumping and using his arm still thing to slash at the shaking pieces of wood. They had the faintest color now that he was close. He moved to the top and the Bad moved with him. Unsheathing his other arm, he tossed it. Then he slashed the structure more. It trembled violently and with the pressure of the Bad, it began to break.

Hyakkimaru jumped as the thing caved in on itself, stabbing into th Bad. 

The Bad began to fade. Two Taps had taught him that when that happens, he didn’t need to slash anymore. 

He searched for his still thing that fell from his belt in his rush. Balancing it between his arm still things, he nudged it into his mouth and carried it toward the little being. The little being had his arms. 

He wasn’t looking forward to putting those arms back on. But he didn’t have to, the little being was already helping him do it. Like Two Taps had done. He waited for the little being to leave like the others had, but the little being’s head bobbed and he moved his arms at Hyakkimaru. 

Was he… was he trying to communicate with him like the others hadn’t?

But Hyakkimaru didn’t have time to follow that thought but a sharp tingle erupted in his right leg stump. He tumbled to the ground clutching at the area. His prosthetic fell away and he watched as his own being grew long to match his wooden leg. Sensation that he had never felt again as he moved this new limb. He moved the little ends of his leg. He didn’t know what the little things were called at the very end but he hadn’t realized they could move. He looked at his hands. Could the little things at the end of his hands move on their own too? Not just with a snapping motion to get them to lock, but… wiggle?

The little being had fallen and his energy was all sorts of excited and agitated. 

Hyakkimaru felt bad different again. 

The little being didn’t have any wood. Neither had Two Taps. Only Ka-Na-Me and him. Why?

He wanted to move away. He didn’t like feeling like this. He gathered Two Tap’s still thing and began to walk away. But he stumbled, unused to his new leg. The feeling of the ground was throwing him off. It was soft. He moved his little end limbs into the grass. 

Then he walked up toward the empty by the trees. The empty felt different than the grass. Harder. He could feel small rocks now.   
The little being came running after him.

Hyakkimaru was sure the little being would leave though. Hyakkimaru was different. Maybe a bad different. Scary different.


	5. The Story of Bandai

Little, as Hyakkimaru had named the one who followed, did not leave him alone. In fact he continued to follow Hyakkimaru. 

Hyakkimaru was irritated because the being was hiding in the trees and he didn’t like how he sometimes lost things in the trees. Then Little would stand in his way and pull at his arms. Hyakkimaru had tried signing at Little, but Little didn’t seem to notice but he had taken that as permission to follow Hyakkimaru. 

He poked at his clothes, his arms, and his whole body shook and bobbed constantly. Hyakkimaru had decided that Little was trying to communicate with him but he had no way of telling him that he couldn’t understand. 

So he walked on and found food. 

Little didn’t like that was going to eat raw fish and now was pulling him along the banks of the river. Hyakkimaru stumbled over some large rocks Little had run him into. And then a dead tree. His new leg was sensitive to it and the new sensations there were distracting. 

So in a way, he was grateful for Little’s guidance. 

Little had created a pit and had taken the fish, which had fully faded at this point. Hyakkimaru assumed he was cooking it like Two Taps did. But he couldn’t be sure. He couldn’t sense anything on the river bank. 

Whoa!

Something came at his face!

He jolted back and turned his head to try to sense it. But nothing. Little took his hand and placed it on something. He brought it close to his face. Felt the dimension with his hand. He assumed this was the fish… but he wouldn’t know for sure until he ate it. 

Confirmed. 

Yummy cooked fish. 

Little was jumping around as he ate. His head constantly bobbed. Two Taps or Ka-Na-Me didn’t communicate this much. What was there to say? Did he need something from Hyakkimaru? Why was he so small? 

Little handed him another fish, nudging his arm first. He supposed Little had noticed that he started Hyakkimaru. That was good. How were others not so easily caught off guard by things? What did they sense in the empty that Hyakkimaru couldn’t? Why couldn’t he?

Little eventually laid down and Hyakkimaru assumed he was sleeping. He stayed awake, thinking. He sometimes had a hard time sleeping. Two Taps always tried to keep a schedule. But since he had been walking, he wasn’t sure. He was tired. This had been a long day. So much change. But maybe that was why he couldn’t sleep. Did Little sleep because he knew it was time or just because he was tired? How did Two Taps create the schedule? Why did he create it?

Little suddenly shifted sharply, catching Hyakkimaru’s attention. Little was all he could sense immediately around him. 

Little sat up and moved closer to Hyakkimaru. He took one of Hyakkimaru’s hands and placed it on something. He didn’t know what was happening but then Little placed Hyakkimaru’s hand on his own cheek. 

Little jumped away before Hyakkimaru could process what he was doing. 

Hyakkimaru dropped his hand. What had Little wanted him to feel? He couldn’t feel with his prosthetic hand. Not in the same way, he could with his body. That’s why Two Taps always touched his face. He wiggled his toes in the sand and rocks. He wanted to ask Little or tell him to try a different way, but Little was already sleeping again.

How do they move on so quickly?

Hyakkimaru didn’t know why Little was in such a rush. 

Eventually, he did fall asleep, moving from the dead tree to the ground carefully, not sure what was there. But he didn’t sleep long as he was on high alert in a new place and already hungry.

He moved back to the river and relished in the sensation of the cool water on his leg. Distracted, he was surprised when Little began jumping in front of him and pushed he back toward the bank. He was hungry. He wanted to eat. He stopped Little on the bank and gestured to his stomach and then to his mouth. 

Little was freaking out. He began jumping all around Hyakkimaru and then gestured to something on the ground. Hyakkimaru moved his hand to his mouth again and made the gesture for Little to wait patting the air away from him. He turned back to the river. 

Little took his hand and gave him something. 

Sighing in defeat, Hyakkimaru sat on the grass beside little and inspected what was in his hand. 

Taking an experimental bite, it was food. 

He turned his face toward where Little was bobbing beside him. He gestured at the food in his hand and then to himself. Little shook aggressively. Hyakkimaru wasn’t sure what that meant, but maybe that it was an affirmation that this was for him?

He began to eat the food ravenously. Little seemed to be eating beside him. 

When he was finished, he turned toward Little, he decided that he would try to communicate. He brought his hands together and then touched Little and shook his head no. He did it twice but Little moved away from him. Hyakkimaru’s shoulders slumped and he sighed. Too different again. 

Little then took his hand and began dragging him through the grass at the edge of the tres. Hyakkimaru was happy to be close to the forest where he could sense things better. It made him more comfortable to move without using the still thing at his waist to verify the ground. Little had gotten a little better at steering him around rocks. Or so Hyakkimaru assumed when they swerved a little and then resumed their course. 

Hyakkimaru turned his head.

There was something… not alive…in the trees monitoring them. Not Bad. Neutral. Lost. 

Little pulled him forward. 

They walked for quite some time before Hyakkimaru began to be aware that they were moving toward one of those empty gathering places like he had gone through yesterday. He kept close to Little as it was already too late for him to get away without tripping or getting lost in the empty. He moved a little slower, dragging behind Little trying to discretely tell him that he wanted to get out of there as beings were gathering around them. 

That’s when he felt the tingle in his whole body and he just barely stopped in time before running into Little. 

A Bad was here. He could feel it. 

Little was communicating with a bigger being. Their bodies bobbed together in a rhythm that was fascinating to Hyakkimaru. He wondered what there was to communicate about. They had eaten. Maybe they felt the Bad too? Maybe that’s what they communicated about. Hyakkimaru was becoming aware of a different sensation as well. Not the tingle of the Bad, but a different sensation like… like he was the center of attention from the other beings. 

He didn’t like it. 

Maybe they were thinking that it was weird he wasn’t bobbing or communicating—

Little grabbed his arm and pulled him forward past the beings. All of their attention was in Hyakkimaru. He didn’t like it. He could sense they knew he was different. Bad different. He could feel it. 

He stayed close to Little. 

This new being brought them inside. There was something big inside but Hyakkimaru didn’t know what it was. A four legged thing. Again he stayed close to Little who was helping the other being do something in the empty on the ground. The new being stayed for a little then left. Hyakkimaru took a few minutes to learn his surroundings. There was something like grass on the ground but dead so he couldn’t sense it. Little had laid out mats that felt like the sleeping mats Two Taps had. 

The new being came back and Little helped him with the food. The new being left again. Little began bobbing while they sat there. Hyakkimaru was tired from not sleeping the night before. Little would keep communicating and he would continue to have no idea what he was trying to tell him. 

Suddenly that thing from the forest appeared. 

Little began moving frantically and pulling at Hyakkimaru’s arm. Why? This thing wasn’t Bad. It moved inside and then away. Little was bobbing and moving around. That new being came back briefly. Hyakkimaru had that sensation that he was being the center of attention. In the bad way. 

That night was another restless night. 

Hyakkimaru woke to Little pulling on his arms. When would he realize that he couldn’t feel anything there? If he wanted Hyakkimaru’s attention he would need to touch Hyakkimaru’s shoulder. That is if he didn’t leave Hyakkimaru. 

Hyakkimaru followed Little and the new being through the empty gathering. Sometimes he was able to sense vague impressions of structures around him. Like his home with Two Taps. Maybe these were these beings’ homes. 

They walked up to a structure and of course there was a step and Hyakkimaru stumbled, making note of it in the future. Did all homes have this step? Hyakkimaru didn’t like it. What was its purpose if not to trip people. Little helped him inside. 

They stood. 

Little began bobbing. 

But Hyakkimaru’s attention fell on something ahead of him. It was partly concealed by something he couldn’t sense, but it wasn’t… it wasn’t a good thing. 

What was it?

The thing before him shifted. It was bigger than it seemed. 

Bad thing. 

He tried to move forward but Little stopped him. Why? The Bad didn’t move against him either which was confusing. They always attacked first. Other beings came running in and grabbed Hyakkimaru. Why? What was happening?

They dragged him away over the empty. He stumbled as they shoved him. Then they threw him into the empty and he fell hard against a wood floor. 

Little was angry. He bobbed and moved harshly as Hyakkimaru moved into a sitting position. Where were they? He didn’t know. Somewhere inside and new. He sighed irritably, and a part of him realized that he would never be able to return to Two Taps. He didn’t know the way. He wasn’t even totally sure he could get back to the forest. 

There were two other beings in the room with them. 

Hyakkimaru shifted. 

He knew one of them. 

The being came toward him with a wooden leg. 

…

Kaname couldn’t believe it. How did Hyakkimaru get here? He had been tossed into the shed after he had been trying to help a few of the townspeople. What was wrong with these people? Then he had found the priest, Biwamaru, who said there was a monster here. 

Kaname moved over to Hyakkimaru and tapped him three times. Hyakkimaru shifted toward him moving his hands over Kaname’s. He was excited. 

“Do you know Mr. No Name?” The little kid was asking. 

“He looks familiar…” Biwamaru muttered using his cane to come over as well. “I’ve seen him before…”

“You can see?” The little one asked. 

“Sometimes those without sight can sense things those with can’t. To me, you look like a white flame. I can see plant life as green. Metal as blue. And evil things as red.”

“You mean Mr. No Name can see the way you do?”

“Maybe?”

Kaname wasn’t fully listening to them focused on Hyakkimaru. “How did you get here? Is Jukai okay?” He asked knowing that Hyakkimaru couldn’t hear or answer him. Hyakkimaru tugged Kaname’s hands, desperate to communicate.

Kaname tapped Hyakkimaru twice for Jukai then turned his palms up in question. Hyakkimaru’s expression turned sad. He gestured away. Then paused, pointing to himself bringing his hands close for want/need then made a walking motion with his body. Kaname thought he understood. That Hyakkimaru had left Jukai. He had made his own decision then. Jukai would be worried. He frowned. 

“What’re you doing?” The kid asked. “By the way I’m Dororo.”

“Kaname,” he introduced. “I know him. I helped raise him. This is how he communicates. When I sign, I make sure Hyakkimaru can sense what I’m doing. Sometimes it takes a few tries. So got to be patient.”

“I tried to tell him my name by speaking into his palm but that didn’t work.” Dororo watched Kaname eagerly. He clearly wanted to talk to Hyakimaru and Kaname noticed the jealous gleam in the kid’s eyes when Hyakkimaru tapped him impatiently. 

Kaname laughed. “Of course not. He has wooden hands. He probably didn’t know what you were doing.” He scratched his head thinking aloud. “You know… I don’t know if he even knows what sound is…”

Biwamaru hummed. 

Dororo nodded eagerly. 

Hyakkimaru was frowning, his face turned slightly toward Dororo. Kaname didn’t think the little kid noticed that Hyakkimaru had his attention on him. Kaname nudged Hyakkimaru playfully. He couldn’t help smiling, but he had no way to tease Hyakkimaru that he had made a friend. They had never made up the signs or words for that concept. 

Kaname instead touched Hyakkimaru’s true leg. “I see you got it back.” He gestured to himself with Hyakimaru’s hands lightly over his and then gestured to Hyakimaru and made the sign for “same.”

Hyakkimaru gave a small smile and patted Kaname’s leg and made the same sign. Then his smile faltered and made the sign for different and pointed to himself. 

Kaname frowned. 

But before he had time to ask what that meant, the light went out.

Dororo shouted. “I can’t see!”

Hyakkimaru shot to his feet and there was a horrible growling noise from the back of the shed. Then Hyakkimaru sprang and disappeared into the darkness. There was a deep growling cry of pain.

Dororo was crying.

“Relax Hyakkimaru and I can’t see either. Come,” he took Kaname’s hand as well and lead them toward the sound. Kaname hated that he felt as scared as Dororo. But he had seen the monsters that attacked Hyakkimaru. They were nothing not to fear. 

“Feel that draft?” The priest said. “This must be a way out. Hyakkimaru must have gone this way too.”

Carefully they climbed down. Dororo cried the entire time. Kaname tried patting the kid’s shoulder comfortingly, but it had no effect. He laughed.

“Don’t laugh at me!” Dororo cried and then finally they both saw the light at the other end of the well. Kaname climbed first and helped the priest. Hyakkimaru had made it up onto the house where that chief lived. 

“See there’s your friend,” the priest told Dororo.

Hyakkimaru kicked back the doors. 

“You’ve come to attack me again,” Bandai said from inside. 

“Give it up, we know what you are!” Biwamaru called as Hyakkimaru unsheathed his sword arms. 

“What color is she?” Dororo asked. 

“Let’s see… the murky color of blood. The worst kind.”

Hyakkimaru sprang. Bandages moved about the woman and wrapped her like a mummy. Huge eyes flashed behind the screen and a large lizard beast nurse forward attacked Hyakkimaru with its tendrils. 

Biwamaru grabbed Dororo and shielded the child from the debris. Kaname fell. 

“It’s a demon,” said the priest.

“A demon?” The child echoed. 

One of the tendrils pierced Hyakkimaru’s shoulder but he moved forward unknowing of the pain, and slashed the beast's eyes. 

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Dororo asked. 

“He can’t feel pain,” Kaname explained. 

That’s when the second in command pull a string and trapped Hyakkimaru under a screen. “Bandai, run away!”

The beast ran off. Hyakkimaru slashed through the screen and followed, mirroring the beasts movements when it jumped over the wall.

…

Hyakkimaru darted after the Bad. It was his domain now. Out of the empty gathering area. There were not-trees all around and the Bad tossed them at him. Hyakkimaru slashed but there were too many and know pierced his clothes. He fell back. 

Angrily he struggled as the beast towered over him.

Then for some reason, the beast turned its head distracted. Hyakkimaru slipped away as it released the pressure on his arms. He slashed at the not-trees to gain height and dived at the beast to slash right through its head. 

He landed hard, stumbling slightly but not falling. He raised his swords as the back of the beast did something. He monitored it since it was changing. Something was happening. He couldn’t let it happen. The tingling in his body was almost unbearable. He brought he sword up and slashed the Bad. 

The Bad faded into nothing. 

He stood still trying to gain his bearings. He wasn’t sure which was the empty gathering area was. Then he noticed that Little, Ka-Na-Me, and the other hunched being had followed. Hyakkimaru became aware of the non violent being from the forest. Little ran toward it and it disappeared. 

Hyakkimaru moved toward Ka-Na-Me who helped him with his arms. 

Little came running over to him and being from the empty gathering area began to be angry toward them. He gestured toward Hyakkimaru. Little stood in front of Hyakkimaru and bobbed. Then turned, pulling Hyakkimaru with him. Hyakkimaru wondered what was happening. What did they have to communicate about?

Ka-Na-Me rubbed his shoulder as though something bad had happened. Was it bad to kill the Bad? He didn’t know. 

He stared at the Little and then stood in front of him. Little had put his hand on his face earlier. Maybe trying to tell him his name? 

Hyakkimaru put both his hands on either side of Little’s face. But Little pushed him away. So Hyakkimaru bent down and traced his name in the dirt the way Two Taps had shown him. Then he found Little’s hand and patted the ground. Then he pointed to himself. He hoped Little understood.

There was some head bobbing between the other three and then Little stood proudly in front of Hyakkimaru. He understood. Hyakkimaru smiled. Perhaps Little wouldn’t leave him. Ka-Na-Me wasn’t upset to meet him. Maybe Little was the same. 

Ka-Na-Me came up to Hyakkimaru and gestured to Little. Then touched his cheek and wrote. He did it several times. 

Do-Ro-Ro. 

Ka-Na-Me gestured to Little. Hyakkimaru nodded and carefully touched Do-Ro-Ro’s shoulder. Do-Ro-Ro jumped up and down excitedly. 

Then sensation struck Hyakkimaru’s entire being. It moved through all his body but especially in his shoulder where he had been stabbed. Bad feeling. 

Pain. 

He fell to the ground pressing his hands over his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was super fun to write. Again I’m sorry if there are typos!
> 
> From here a few of the events from the anime will be different more based on the stage play and the original manga. I have some plans for Hyakkimaru before he gets his ears back. But I felt that it was important for Kaname to join their team in the beginning. 
> 
> Let me know what you think!


	6. The Story of Sound

Kaname stayed with Hyakkimaru. He needed to figure out what was going on with Jukai for surely the doctor wouldn’t have let Hyakkimaru leave on his own. He hoped that Jukai hadn’t gotten hurt. It seemed like Hyakkimaru had run away but he couldn’t be sure because they didn’t have the ability to communicate such complex things. 

Dororo was also interesting. He was very attached to Hyakkimaru for some reason. Kaname had never seen anyone so invested in people like Hyakkimaru before other than Jukai and himself. 

Though truth be told, if he had found the baby, he wasn’t sure if he would have done what Jukai had done. He hated himself for that. 

Looking at Hyakkimaru now as he considered this, he felt even worse. Hyakkimaru was obviously not enjoying this new ability to feel pain as he didn’t like walking far with his bare foot on rocks, and jolted as the slightest changes in terrain. And yet, despite the uncomfortability, he was constantly trying to explore and figure it all out. He gestured for meaning that Kaname didn’t know how to give him. He had started writing on Hyakkimaru’s thigh or back. Kaname wasn’t sure what Hyakkimaru understood, but Hyakkimaru always wanted more words. 

Dororo couldn’t write. Hyakkimaru didn’t understand why. He had gestured for Dororo to write and to tell him things and was frustrated when Dororo wouldn’t. Dororo did, however, try to sign with Hyakkimaru. He copied Kaname.

Earlier, when they stopped to rest. Hyakkimaru hadn’t wanted to stop, but then Dororo came up to him and signed that he was hungry. Hyakkimaru paused, shocked, repeated the gesture, and then pointed at himself to indicate that he was too. 

This was the first night since Kaname joined them that Hyakkimaru sat near Dororo. 

He touched Dororo’s arm every so often to which the kid shoved him away/. “I’m trying to cook fish!”

Kaname laughed. 

“You want to communicate with him, right?” He asked. “He’s trying to communicate with you. Don’t push him away. He doesn’t know what you’re doing if he’s not close. And he touches you to show you he’s paying attention.”

Dororo nodded and then slapped Hyakkimaru’s hand on his shoulder again. Hyakkimaru blinked at the sudden movement but didn’t pull back. 

“So when I want his attention, I should hold his hand or something? I do that when we walk because he doesn’t always follow.” Dororo looked at Hyakkimaru for a long moment. “Sorry for shoving you.”

The fish was done. Kaname scooted over to let Hyakkimaru know there was food and hold out his hand. Hyakkimaru did so and began eating. Then paused and turned back toward Dororo. 

He gestured to his stomach and then at Dororo and then moved the fish toward the child. 

Dororo laughed and slapped Hyakkimaru’s shoulder. “I have one too, see!” He shoved his fish toward Hyakkimaru’s cheek. 

Hyakkimaru jolted feeling the heat radiating from the fish. Then his lips quirked in a small smile and he nodded. 

Dororo laughed and chatted while they ate. He asked Kaname about how Hyakkimaru grew up. He was fixated on who Hyakkimaru’s parents were. 

“We don’t know,” Kaname answered. “He was abandoned. Probably because he was malformed. It happens a lot when that’s the case. People barely have the means to feed and take care of themselves, you know. Not that it makes it better.”

Dororo nodded. “My mama did that for me.”

“She must have been a good mama.” Kaname smiled. Dororo had mentioned that Bandai reminded him of his mama too. 

“She was. She would do anything for me.” He looked at Hyakkimaru, anger in his face. “I can’t believe his parents would do that to him. Didn’t they love him?”

The priest finally spoke up scaring them nearly out of their skin. “Seems that someone made a deal with demons to give away that boy’s body. Love seems to have nothing to do with it.”

“That’s too cruel.” Dororo was shifting as he sat, mirroring Hyakkimaru as he had begun to rock slightly with lack of stimulation. Although, Hyakkimaru’s face was angled toward them and his brow was furrowed. 

Kaname had seen that look a few times when he stayed in winter and Jukai and him were talking. It seemed Hyakkimaru was aware of some communication that he couldn’t take part in.

Suddenly there was rustling in the woods. 

They all jolted toward the sound except for Hyakkimaru who didn’t move. 

It was a girl in a worn red kimono and hair down to her knees. 

“You shouldn’t be camping in these woods. There’s a war brewing between the two clans here. They have their swords drawn. You don’t want to get caught up in that. You can take shelter in the abandoned temple with us if you like,” she said.

“Are you sure?” Biwamaru said. “We don’t want to cause you any trouble.”

The girl’s eyes were on Hyakkimaru as she answered. “It wouldn’t be any trouble. Please come.”

Kaname adjusted his prosthetic leg and grabbed his walking staff. Biwamaru grabbed his bamboo cane. Dororo of course sprang to his feet.

Hyakkimaru did not move.

“I’m Mío, by the way,” she said. “I take care of some of the orphans left behind from the last battle. I just don’t want to see any more suffering if I can help it.” She laughed nervously and came over to Hyakkimaru. “Oh, you’re blind too?”

“He can’t hear either,” Dororo chimed in and then slapped himself in the forehead. “Oh! I should probably tell him.”

But Mío had tapped Hyakkimaru’s shoulder and his head swiveled toward her. Then she gently placed his hand on her shoulder for him to follow. He did with a strange turn of his head. Then he turned to Dororo and Kaname. Dororo patted Hyakkimaru on the shoulder encouragingly and they all began following Mío through the forest.

She was careful to avoid the road though she did try to choose the smoothest paths for Biwamaru and Hyakkimaru. 

They walked up the steps to a half caved in temple. Mío introduced them to all the orphans living there. All of whom had suffered burns and loss limbs from the battle. Dororo instantly became friends with several and ran around with them. 

The next day, Kaname found Mio sitting by Hyakkimaru while Dororo was out playing with the other kids. Take had tried to make Mio go to sleep, but here she was anyway. Kaname knew had one of those gentle natures, and like Dororo she wanted to communicate with Hyakkimaru. Like Jukai. Was Kaname that good? And when had he started thinking of Jukai as good? Or patient maybe was a better word, and willing to put more effort in to connect with others who may have a hard time. 

All thoughts came to a stop when Mio began singing. Of course Hyakkimaru had no idea what was happening, but his wooden hands lingered in hers spoke volumes of where his attention was. In fact, Kaname had noticed that Hyakkimaru was tracking her movements when she came in a room or when she left in a way that he had never done before. 

Kaname wondered what Hyakkimaru sensed. 

Mio stopped singing. “Though I guess you probably don’t know that I’m singing,” she said. “But sometimes I get the feeling that you’re looking at me.” She shuddered slightly and Hyakkimaru felt the movement and leaned closer. 

Mio laughed and patted his hands. “So strange… I’m not bothered by these hands.” She then leaned her and began singing right next to Hyakkimaru’s cheek. 

He jolted slightly feeling her breath and his hands moved to her face. His brow furrowed as he was trying to figure something out. 

“Do you want to listen?” Mio asked. Her face was red. “It is a little embarrassing. But it’s all I can think to do.” Gently, she brought Hyakkimaru’s head to her neck and upper chest so that he could feel the vibrations as she sang. 

Hyakkimaru’s eyes went wide and he leaned back. He touched her chest and shook his hand as though it was vibrating. She laughed, and copying what she had seen Dororo do, nodded against Hyakkimaru’s forehead. Then he touched his own chest and presented his still hand. He was confused and a heartbreaking look passed over his face. 

Mio nodded as though she understood and gently brought his head to her neck and began singing again. 

Kaname slowly moved away feeling embarrassed to have witnessed such a moment.


	7. The Story of Songs

Hyakkimaru didn’t know why this person was different. Kaname told him its name was Mio. He liked being near Mio. It was different than being near Kaname and Dororo. Kaname, he could communicate with the best. Apparently, he was the only one who could write, not that Hyakkimaru knew everything that he was saying, but the words were important. He knew they were important. 

And Dororo was always around him too, helping and signing. Dororo was a fast learner and often made new signs that Hyakkimaru had to make him slow down and teach him. He couldn’t believe how much there was to talk about. It was more than food and more than things. Dororo was always gesturing around. Sometimes Hyakkimaru knew what he was talking about, sometimes it was something he couldn’t sense. Like one night. He knew it was night because it was colder. He could feel the difference now. The days were hot and sometimes it felt like there was a fire above him that moved throughout the day. 

One night Dororo was gesturing above and making the sign for nice. But Hyakkimaru had no idea what it was. But he didn’t say anything back. What was there to say? There was nothing there. 

He was also learning a bit about people. More than just Dororo, Kaname and now Mio. There were other little beings that were similar to him. Different like him. And they all lived together here away from the empty spaces where the other beings lived. Other beings were scared of them. Hyakkimaru wanted to know why. But he remembered when they left that place after he got his sense of pain back, how the other beings were angry and fearful. They didn’t like different. 

Mio was only around during the day when it was hot. 

She often sat with him and vibrated her neck. Apparently that’s what happened when they bobbed their heads. Hyakkimaru couldn’t make the vibrations. He tried several times, but there was nothing in his chest. The Bad must have it. That’s what he was learning. That everything he was missing was with the Bad. 

It was early morning now and Kaname was sitting with him since he had woken early and apparently was causing some problem moving about. Kaname had him sit outside saying it was too early for Mio to be back. 

Kaname’s head bobbed a bit. Hyakkimaru touched his throat but of course he couldn’t feel the vibrations with his wooden hands. But he also knew Kaname was hesitant about touching, but he wanted his meaning to get across. He wanted to know if Kaname’s throat was vibrating.

Kaname took his hand and made a big nod so Hyakkimaru could tell. 

Hyakkimaru and Dororo had made up a sign for what and why by turning both palms toward the sky and shrugging. Dororo was always doing this sign and Hyakkimaru caught on fast that this was the question word he had been looking for. 

Kaname’s being shifted uncomfortable, but he took Hyakkimaru’s hand and moved it from his throat to his face and then toward Hyakkimaru and then touched Hyakkimaru’s wooden thing on the side of his head. 

Hyakkimaru blinked slowly knowing that that also acted as a question sometimes. 

Kaname then took Hyakkimaru’s hand to his own throat and shook the hand like it was vibrating. The hand moved up his throat to his mouth. Then the hand paused there and moved Hyakkimaru’s jaw up and down before moving out and away toward Kaname’s side of his head. 

Kaname waited.

Hyakkimaru thought about this. Was his saying that the vibrations moved out of the chest up out of his mouth and somehow reached Kaname. Hyakkimaru had know idea how they could feel such vibrations. 

...Kaname had touched the wooden thing on the side of his head. Maybe it had something to do with that. Something else that he lacked. 

Slowly, Hyakkimaru nodded that he understood. Experimentally he moved his lips and jaw open and closed. Weird. That only happened when chewing. Strange to do it without food. 

Kaname shook with the good shakes. 

Hyakkimaru touched the side of his head and then made a slashing movement and tapped the side of his head again with a shrug. 

Kaname nodded against his hand. So it was something the Bad had probably. 

Hyakkimaru touched Kaname’s wooden leg and then made a slashing motion and pointed at Kaname with a shrug. Why didn’t Kaname search for the Bad too?

Kaname shook his head no.

Hyakkimaru asked why.

Kaname made the sign for gone/finished by rotating his wrists and flipping his hands up and down. 

Hyakkimaru pointed to himself and made a slashing motion and then pointed at Kaname’s leg. He could do it. He was strong enough. 

Kaname again shook his head no and signed that it was gone/finished. 

Hyakkimaru furrowed his brow. Wasn’t he the same as Kaname? Why wouldn’t he reclaim his body too?

Kaname massaged Hyakkimaru’s back. It was a comforting way but the motion held sadness in it. Or maybe not sadness but some emotion. 

Kaname then signed to Hyakkimaru the word for different and pointed to Hyakkimaru. He touched Hyakkimaru’s regained parts: mouth, back and leg, and signed special/important by tapping his heart twice. Kaname gestured to his leg and made the sign for person/people: palm facing the ground and making the person his height. Then made a slashing movement, touched his leg, and made the sign for gone/finished. 

Kaname waited. 

Hyakkimaru thought about these signs. Did that means that sometimes things can be gone forever? That the Bad didn’t always take and you could get it back. 

It made Hyakkimaru feel sick and he shuddered.

Kaname massaged his shoulder again, comforting. Kaname signed that he was Okay by taping his own shoulders twice with Hyakkimaru’s hand. 

That’s when Mio returned and Hyakkimaru shifted toward her instantly. Kaname shook with the good shakes. Hyakkimaru ignored him. 

She patted Hyakkimaru’s shoulder and squeezed it which was her way of greeting. Hyakkimaru was excited and pointed to his mouth and moved his jaw like before. Both Kaname and Mio shook with the good shakes. 

Dororo sprang out of nowhere and startled Hyakkimaru but he continued to point to his mouth and move his jaw. Their heads bobbed between one another. Hyakkimaru felt a twinge of irritation that he couldn’t know what they were saying because he couldn’t feel the vibrations in the side of his head. Why couldn’t they sign? He was about to sign something when Mio moved his real leg to bend the knee and began to vibrate into his skin. He hadn’t realized he could feel the vibrations there too. 

They sat there for a few moments, all of them, feeling her vibrations, before the old being, Biwamaru, returned behind them. 

Hyakkimaru’s brow furrowed. 

Something… something was different. 

There was a sensation in his throat tugging him toward… 

Biwamaru’s head was bobbing. Everyone seemed excited about something. He shifted, irritated that he was being excluded, and was particularly aware that Mio was excited about whatever was happening. 

But then Biwamaru’s head bobbed again and the excitement dulled.

What was happening?

Kaname was sitting too far so he turned to Dororo and touched his arms to get him to sign. He made the sign for what and shrugged his shoulders then gestured toward everyone. 

Dororo did something too fast and Hyakkimaru didn’t understand. He tugged at Dororo’s hands impatiently to get them to slow down. Everyone’s attention was on him, he could feel it and he didn’t like that either. He couldn’t be the only one who couldn’t feel the vibrations in his head, could he? But even Kaname said he was different.

Dororo moved slower this time. 

Dororo tapped Hyakkimaru’s prosthetics and then gestured away, which had become the sign for the Bad beings. But what had they been excited about? He didn’t know how to ask. Anger and frustration bubbled inside of him, and he stood up. Whatever it was, the Bad was probably why the excitement had dulled. 

He moved out of the inside place and headed toward where he felt the sensation in his throat the strongest. 

Biwamaru followed him. Hyakkimaru was irritated because for sure Biwamaru was probably trying to communicate with him in the way that he must know Hyakkimaru couldn’t. But then he decided it was good in case he couldn’t remember the way back to Mio. 

They trekked through the forest and eventually Biwamaru began leading him on more of a direct path since every so often Hyakkimaru would have to stop and try to sense which direction he felt the Bad the strongest. 

They eventually came to an empty place. Hyakkimaru used Two Taps still thing to sweep the ground ahead of him like he would with his stick growing up. Biwamaru always had a stick with him and did the same. Maybe Biwamaru was like him, he thought suddenly and he hadn’t noticed before. They felt their way to the edge of a great chasm.

Hyakkimaru used the still thing to reach down, but he couldn’t feel the bottom. There was wind gushing so it must be a big hole. And there! At the bottom was that horrible Bad. 

Biwamaru’s head was bobbing again, but Hyakkimaru didn’t pay attention because the Bad burst forward! The ground gave way and he fell forward sliding down toward the Bad. 

He jumped, tossing his arms aside to unsheathe his blades. He stabbed into the Bad, but the creature tossed him up and when Hyakkimaru crashed, he slipped unused to feeling the rocky ground with his foot.

The Bad lurched forward and bit his leg! His real leg! He was being pulled down. He struggled, opening his mouth gasping for air, when Biwamaru grabbed him and yanked him back. 

His leg exploded with pain!

And…

Vibrations erupted in his chest!

Biwamaru pulled him out while he writhed on the ground clutching at his leg! His leg was gone! Ripped from him!

He couldn’t stop the vibrations in his throat.

*

Dororo led Biwamaru and a moaning Hyakkimaru back into the temple. Kaname tied a tourniquet around his thigh to stop the bleeding. Hyakkimaru shuddered and moaned. The sound of his voice was jarring to Kaname and seeing his face twisted with pain. He wasn’t as good as Jukai was with healing these injuries, but he was better than nothing. 

Once Hyakimaru was bandaged properly, he stroked Hyakkimaru’s hair from his face and tried soothing him. But Hyakkimaru didn’t have the wherewithal at the moment to pay attention to his signs. 

Dororo was shaking with worry. 

Then Mio ran into the room and instantly began wiping dirt from Hyakkimaru’s torso despite Take’s protests.

“It won’t kill him,” Biwamaru said. 

Kaname shot the blind man a dirty look. He wanted to say something scathing about how Hyakkimaru had just regained the leg, but held his tongue. It wouldn’t solve anything. Hyakkimaru had undergone so many changes in such a short time and to lose something again, not to mention to unfortunately be able to feel the pain too. 

Dororo ran from the room as Mio pulled down her kimono sleeves.

“I don’t know how to calm him down,” Kaname said again stroking Hyakkimaru’s hair as he gave a low guttural moan. He hadn’t realized his hands were shaking.

Mio then leaned down and began to sing laying her head against Hyakkimaru’s chest. His moans faltered for a moment and his breaths became less ragged. “I have some medicine,” she said between verses. “It should dull the pain. Take, if you could…”

The boy ran off to fetch and brew the medicine. 

And Mio continued to sing.

After a long time, Kaname began to think that Hyakkimaru’s noises were attempting to match her own. But that was impossible. He must be hallucinating. 

Eventually he left Mio and Hyakkimaru alone.


	8. The Story of Shattered Hearts

Kaname didn’t know how to help Hyakkimaru who had spiraled into an angry depression after the loss of his real leg. When Mio wasn’t around, he hardly ate and barely communicated. Dororo was anxious as the child had become strangely attached to Hyakkimaru as though they were brothers.

“Will he be okay?” Dororo kept asking. He was the only one that could force Hyakkimaru to eat. Though the child literally shoved food into Hyakkmaru’s mouth in order to do so. The priest had said something to Dororo that made Kaname furious.

“He’s like a beast in a cave,” the priest had said. “You better hope what comes out isn’t a monster.”

When Kaname had seen Dororo feeding Hyakkimaru, the child had asked Hyakkimaru, who was making a makeshift prosthetic leg for himself, if he was going to let the demons consume him. Although he had asked verbally and so naturally Hyakkimaru didn’t respond. 

Hyakkimaru wasn’t turning into a demon. He was learning about the world outside himself, and was finding that he was angry at the world. As most sixteen year olds were. As Kaname had been when he had left Jukai. Kaname understood what Hyakkimaru was feeling to an extent. Their world was unfair. And for Hyakkimaru, he probably was just realizing how much he was missing. How much he didn’t have access to. Then to now have to lose something after knowing what it was like to have it. He was just processing it. The priest should have understood this.

But Kaname supposed that the priest had lived most of his life as someone who looked down on people like Hyakkimaru or demonized them. Hyakkimaru couldn’t communicate with the priest after all and the priest couldn’t be bothered to learn to communicate with Hyakkimaru.

Just thinking about this made Kaname as angry as Hyakkimaru probably was. Hyakkimaru couldn’t learn to hear and understand words (though he may regain his ears in the future), but the priest could learn to sign. 

Kaname forced himself to smile at Dororo who was anxiously awaiting an answer. “He’s just adjusting. I think he’s learned about talking through you and Mio, and he doesn’t like being left out. Also losing his leg agian.”

Dororo nodded and Kaname ruffed the boy’s hair. Dororo went to see what Take and the other children were doing before the sun went down. Kaname turned to find Mio and Hyakkimaru before Mio went off to work. She had been coming back with more and more bruises lately. 

He hovered in the doorway, his chest hurting as he watched Mio giggling with Hyakkimaru. Hyakkimaru had finished crafting his new prosthetic after about a week of healing. He had refused to let Kaname help him. It turned out pretty good. Kaname had a hunch that Hyakkimaru had been trying to impress Mio. 

“That’s close, let’s try again,” she said aloud. 

Hyakkimaru’s brows were furrowed together in concentration. She drew the characters on his face. Then Mio leaned forward, lips brushing his cheek. 

“Mio,” she said very clearly, moving her lips against his skin, and signing with Hyakkimaru’s hand toward herself as she did so. “Me-oh.”

Then Hyakkimaru turned his head and mouthed something a few times before engaging his voice. “Mmm-ee-o-oh.” He cocked his head in question as though feeling the taste of the word, but wasn’t sure.

Mio laughed and nodded against his forward. “That’s my name.”

Then Hyakkimaru smiled and Kaname felt his heart swell and tears come into his eyes. He wished Jukai could have seen this. Jukai had said many times that all he ever wanted was for Hyakkimaru to be happy. 

“Hey,” he choked out trying to force his eyes to soak back up the tears. 

“Oh, Kaname!” Mio turned with a huge smile. Her eyes were glistening and hopeful. “He learned my name!”

“Ah,” he said and almost started crying all over again. He came over and sat beside her. Hyakkimaru reached for him and he tapped his arm three times to identify himself. 

Then Hyakkimaru gestured toward Mio and very deliberately said, “Mm-ee-oh.”

Kaname patted his shoulder encouragingly. 

Hyakkimaru gestured toward Kaname and then toward his throat with a shrug. Kaname traced his name against Hyakkimaru’s cheek. Hyakkimaru shook his head impatiently. Kaname’s cheeks heated. but Mio looked so hopeful that he leaned toward Hyakkimaru’s cheek and spoke very clearly. “Ka-Na-Me.”

Hyakkimaru straightened his shoulders. He mouthed it a few times but then engaged his throat. “Ga-na-mm.”

Mio laughed and massaged Hyakkimaru’s shoulder, shaking her head no against his forehead. He looked confused but was clearly delighted that she was laughing. 

“He’s trying,” she said. “It took him a lot of practice to say my name. He’s so determined… Kaname?’

Kaname hadn’t realized the tears had started streaming down his cheeks. He felt like Jukai, always crying. He wiped the tears away, embarrassed. He hadn’t been expecting… “I just…” he tried to say but then choked and gave an embarrassed laugh. “I guess I never expected to hear him speak or try to say my name.”

Mio nodded with an understanding smile. 

Kaname shoved Hyakkimaru’s shoulder playfully to try to take the spotlight off himself. “Hey, you! You’re changing so fast. You’re scaring Dororo,” he said swallowing hard. 

Hyakkimaru cocked his head, but then stood up. He gestured outside and at his new prosthetic. He wanted to move. He walked with his hands outstretched slightly until he found the doorframe, then carefully found the edge of the step feeling with his new prosthetic for the edge. Then stepped down. Once he was out of the temple, he moved more freely, unsheathing his arms and practicing. 

The children all gathered around him. 

“He wants to fight it again…” Mio said softly to Kaname. Worry colored her expression. “He’s not ready.”

Kaname didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure how he would stop Hyakkimaru if the boy left. Kaname wasn’t a fighter. Hyakkimaru had managed to leave Jukai after all. He was smart and picked up on more than they thought possible. That’s what they get for underestimating him. 

Take was marveling at the swords and tugging on Hyakkimaru’s kimono. 

“I have to go to work,” Mio said and began her descent down the stairs. 

Hyakkimaru’s face turned toward her but he let himself be dragged away by the children.

*

Hyakkimaru was gone!

Dororo sprang out of the temple and saw the footprints into the forest where he had encountered the priest holding the injured Hyakkimaru. He ran as fast as he could down the path. He could hear something ahead like something moving huge stones. 

He stumbled into the open lot. “Hyakkimaru!”

Hyakkimaru dived into the hole. 

Dororo grabbed a few stones and threw it at the great bug like demon. But they didn’t do anything. Hyakkimaru slashed at the demon mercilessly. But then it tossed him into the air, opening its great jaws. 

“Hyakkimaru!” Dororo called again. 

The demon bit into Hyakkimaru’s prosthetic, but this time when Hyakkimaru managed to spring away, he jumped into the air, revealing a sword in his leg. He slashed down and decapitated the demon. 

“Hyakkimaru!” Dororo carefully crawled over the edge as the demon slumped, dead. Hyakkimaru began grabbing at his prosthetic, tossing the wood aside. He moaned and fell to the ground. Had he been injured when the demon grabbed the prosthetic?

But then like before, the leg grew back. 

Hyakkimaru stood and stamped the earth with his flesh foot. He straightened his shoulders and stood tall. Then he reached out to Dororo, wordlessly telling him to lead him out.

“Did you know I would follow you?” Dororo asked irritably, hands on his hips as he walked over to Hyakkimaru, who blindly reached for his shoulder. “Don’t try to pull the blind thing now! I just saw you take down that demon and reclaim your leg even though we told you not to!”

Hyakkimaru moved up Dororo’s shoulder and more or less covered his mouth as though he knew Dororo was speaking. 

Dororo jabbed Hyakkimaru in the belly before taking Hyakkimaru’s hands and signing the word for “dangerous.” Hyakkimaru’s lips quirked and he shoved at Dororo to lead them out. 

Dororo managed to guide him out of the hole. “I’m glad you got your leg back, but geez! Don’t be so reckless there’s a lot of people that care about you!”

Hyakkimaru faltered slightly, his face angled up. 

Dororo turned.  
Oh no.

*

Kaname heard when they killed the child who had been lookout after they had discovered Hyakkimaru left. 

He had gathered who he could. 

He grabbed Mio’s arm forcefully and yanked her and the few he could toward the back of the temple. There wasn’t any time to explain or talk. They were coming. 

Samurai. 

They ran out the back. 

An arrow struck his prosthetic leg. 

Mio screamed. 

They were coming. 

And all he could see was his dad nailed and hung to die. 

*

Hyakkimaru was yanked along by Dororo, stumbling up the steps in their hurry. What was happening? Something had changed about the temple. He couldn’t tell what but something was different. Part of it had disappeared. 

Dororo topped. 

There were people Hyakkimaru didn’t know here. And it was hot. Really hot. Dangerously hot. 

Fire. 

And there were some of the beings on the ground. He couldn’t tell who they were on the ground like that. They were fading, like flowers when Hyakkimaru picked them. The new beings had still things like the still thing Hyakkimaru carried on his hip. They shoved Dororo and raised the still thing. 

One of the fading beings disappeared completely. 

Where was Mio? Where was Kaname?

More of the beings on the ground faded completely. 

Gone. Kaname had said something about people making things go away forever. Mio. Kaname. Bad feelings welled in his chest. These people had taken them and made them go away forever. 

He began to make the vibrations in his throat and threw his arms. The beings came at him. But he was faster. The big fat being slashed his still thing at Dororo! Hyakkimaru slashed and a part of the big being came off and disappeared, then the being ran.

The others rushed at Hyakkimaru, but he jumped at them and made them disappear!

One by one. Until they were gone. Dororo was shaking on the ground. Hyakkimaru couldn’t sense any of the beings now. They were all gone. Gone forever. He screamed. Dororo ran to him and hugged his chest showing him something...different. He didn’t know. But his chest hurt now. Not with hot bad feelings… but something different bad… painful bad. 

There was something wet and hot all over him. It tasted metallic. It was bad too. He was shaking and he turned his head frantically. 

He tried clapping like he used to do to get Two Taps’ attention.

Then he tried to vibrate their names. 

Dororo hugged him tighter. 

Hyakkimaru fell to his knees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this late upload. Week has been a bit busy. Lots of changes, and I'v been procrastinating this chapter for obvious reasons. 
> 
> Let me know what you think.


	9. The Story of Rain

Ever since they had left the temple in ruins, it had been raining non stop. 

They had been sleeping in shrines, which seemed to be the safest places from demons, and the only place to avoid the rain. Hyakkimaru moved slower than normal. Every movement seemed a struggle and his limbs weighed heavily on him. He couldn’t even pay attention to where they were going and let himself be dragged along by Dororo. 

What was that much worse was that he couldn’t fully communicate with Dororo. Dororo knew some signs but not the ones where he could explain what happened. Why had those people done that? What had they done wrong? Where did everyone go? What happened when they disappeared?

Hyakkimaru didn’t know. 

Dororo couldn’t understand his questions and couldn’t respond. At first Hyakkimaru had been so frustrated that he wanted to walk back to Two Taps and give up. Why was the point of getting his body back when he didn’t have Mio or Kaname around? But he didn’t know the way home anymore. 

So Dororo guided him through the rain. 

At least that was a distraction. Now that he could feel it more acutely, it was a constant rhythm on his body. And it was cold. If he opened his mouth, he could taste it. It was… he didn’t know the words. But good and new. 

They huddled under another shrine. Hyakkimaru hadn’t bothered learning the layout and just let Dororo guide him to where he needed to be. Dororo had found nuts and berries for them to eat. Hyakkimaru rocked anxiously. He wanted to be in the rain, but Dororo didn’t seem to think it was a good idea for some reason.

Why? Hyakkimaru asked with a shrug of his shoulders. 

Bad. It was all Dororo could sign. His head constantly bobbed and he was probably making those vibrations Hyakkimaru couldn’t understand explaining everything he wanted to know to be sure. Dororo was almost worse than Kaname when it came to touching so he wasn’t sure if he could convince Dororo to come close enough for Hyakkimaru to feel the vibration and repeat it as best he could. 

He exhaled.

His chest felt hollow at the thought of Kaname. 

Dororo was tugging on his sleeve. He was gesturing to that thing he had given him. The one that was brighter than other things. New life, Hyakkimaru thought it was. He had put it in the pouch Two Taps had given him before he snuck out. He held onto it now with his right hand. It was all he had left of Mio. 

And now he felt bad about that too. 

He made the sign for wanting and gestured away. Home. He made a vague outline of a house. Dororo wouldn’t understand. He didn’t and repeated the sign then gestured around them. 

Hyakkimaru sighed and shook his head. 

Dororo shivered beside him. Hyakkimaru didn’t know how to make fire, but leaned against Dororo trying to warm him up. Dororo shifted away irritably. Hyakkimaru sighed again, but then Dororo patted his back. Hyakkimaru nodded. 

Dororo asked if he was still hungry. 

He shook his head no. 

Dororo’s head bobbed about something else. Then he poked Hyakkimaru’s armpits and sides. Hyakkimaru barely had time to process before he stopped. Dororo was always doing everything so fast. 

Oh well. 

Then he noticed that Dororo was rocking. Was… was Dororo copying him? Kaname didn’t want him to rock. He put a hand on Dororo’s shoulder to get him to stop just as Kaname and Two Taps always did. 

His chest hurt again. 

He stood up and felt his way out from under the cover of the shrine. He used Two Taps still thing to sweep the ground ahead of him to find the ledge of the building. Then went out into the rain, letting the feeling on the raindrops do what the rocking did. Just something to focus on, to feel, and to distract himself with. Dororo tried to pull him back under the shrine but he couldn’t. He needed to be here. 

Because that warm salty water was in the corners of his eyes again and he wanted to rain to wash it away. 

*

Hyakkimaru had been standing out in the rain for half an hour. Dororo had tried to bring him back in but he wouldn’t budge. Even if he tried the few signs he knew, Hyakkimaru wouldn’t pay attention.

“Fine! Catch a cold for all I care!” Dororo yelled and crouched under the roof of the shrine watching Hyakkimaru. It’s not that he didn’t know how Hyakkimaru felt. He did. He just didn’t know how to reach Hyakkimaru. 

“So much for trying to make you laugh,” Dororo mumbled thinking about his attempt at tickling. He sighed. They had passed a town three days ago and Dororo had tried to find a place for them to stay or at least something for them to eat. But as soon as the villagers seen Hyakkimaru being led by Dororo, they didn’t want them in their village. Dororo had been driven away before but this was different. They called Hyakkimaru an omen and a monster and asked what he had done to end up like that. 

It scared Dororo, and he was glad that Hyakkimaru couldn’t hear them. 

So since then they had been staying in shrines. At least they were dry.

Yesterday, Dororo had tried to get Hyakkimaru to say his name while they took shelter in a different shrine. He wished he had been spying on what Mio and he had been doing since she was teaching him how to say her name. He couldn’t believe it when Hyakkimaru had called out her name as the temple collapsed. He had said something else too that might’ve been Kaname’s name but he wasn’t sure. Either way, Dororo wished that Hyakkimaru would say his name. But he wasn’t sure how to teach him...

“Um… excuse me?” a kind female voice said behind him. 

“Give it up. He can’t hear anything you’re saying. He’s deaf. He’s been standing there for half an hour and is as wet as a drowned rat,” Dororo said and couldn’t keep the bitterness from his voice. “He can catch a cold for all I care.”

“I wonder if he’s listening to the rain,” she said.

“I told you, he can’t hear!”

“I know. It’s just a feeling.” She smiled at him. Her face was gentle and kind though her clothes were poor. She looked like a peddler. 

“Pretty words and a ladylike face. You’re from a rich family, right? Not some country girl.” 

She shrugged. “Maybe in another life. But now I’m a peddler. My name is Osushi.”

“So what were you praying about? Good fortune. That’s what I’m praying for too.” He cast a glance at Hyakkimaru’s forced still form. Why had Hyakkimaru not wanted him to rock? He just wanted to know what it felt like since Hyakkimaru did it all the time. It was a little addicting, rocking like that. 

“No. I’m praying for my brother’s safe return. He left to fight in a way five years ago.” The woman had turned back to the shrine and put her hands together. 

That brought Dororo back. “Five years…? But if it’s been that long…” He bit his lip. 

Just then a man fell dead. 

Hyakkimaru shifted suddenly, turning his head. He was tracking something. Then took off running.

“Hey! Wait! Where are you going!?” Dororo ran after him, amazed at how easily Hyakkimaru could avoid trees but sometimes ran into things inside places. 

Hyakkimaru only moved like that for one reason:

There was a demon. 

*

The sides of Hyakkimaru’s head tinged as he watched that Bad thin demon wielded by that being. The thin Bad moved fast. They slashed at one another and moved quickly over the terrain. It took all of Hyakkimaru’s effort to keep track of him. Every time the Thin Bad clashed with his swords there was a reverberating in his head. He leaned toward it and pushed against it. Why? It was painful in his head! Clash again and ring! The Bad vibrated against his blade. He panted. 

Then the Thin Bad slashed toward him again and sliced Hyakkimaru’s cheek. It hurt! He stepped back and there was nothing there!

The Thin Bad was coming!

He kicked up his prosthetic leg letting the Bad sink into it and shouldering the being who held up over the abyss behind him. His prosthetic leg went flying into the trees and brush, disappearing. Hyakkimaru fell forward, off balance without his leg. 

He gave a frustrated sigh as Dororo ran up with him with his arm. He touched his cheek and it… it stung! 

Then Dororo disappeared. He propped his arm up and sheathed the blade. At least he still had Two Taps still thing to lean on since Dororo had disappeared. He turned his head searching for either Dororo or the still thing. 

He clapped his hands, but he wasn’t sure if Dororo knew what that meant. He made vibrations in his throat… but he wasn’t sure how to vibrate Dororo’s name. He gave another frustrated sigh and used the still thing as a crutch as best he could and hopped toward the trees. Once he was in the trees, he used those to help him balance as well. 

He turned his head and moved slowly making sure he scanned as much of the area as possible as he passed through.

There!

His leg!

Okay… where was Dororo?

*

Jukai was waiting for a patient, anxiously thinking about Hyakkimaru. He knew that one day the boy would leave him. But he hadn’t been expecting it in the way that it had happened. He hoped that the boy was alright and wanted to follow him... But what if Hyakkimaru blamed him for keeping him away from finding the demons that had his body?

There was rustling as people approached. Strange that his patient should come from the forest and not the road… but maybe they had needed something there?

Then there was the unmistakable sound of a body dropping, and a painful cry along with it.

He hopped off the ledge and turned the corner.

“Kaname!?”


	10. The story of the cursed sword

Kaname had been unconscious for a few hours. His prosthetic leg was shattered by an arrow and had scratched up his other leg. He had been traveling with a girl Mio who had gotten an arrow in her shoulder. She had lost a lot of blood but Jukai believed since they hadn’t removed the arrow, that she would live. The two orphans with them, Take and Shion, were more or less unharmed if not traumatized. Jukai guessed there were others that hadn’t survived the attack. 

“Hya… kkimaru…” Kaname mumbled in his sleep and Jukai sat bolt upright. 

“Hyakkimaru?” He repeated and Mio shifted to look at him. Her face was very white. Her feet were wrapped in thick bandages from running through the forest practically carrying Kaname. 

“I hope…” she began softly. “I hope he is okay…”

“Did you meet Hyakkimaru?” Jukai asked her. “Was he all right?” His heart froze as he took in the sight of their battered selves with a new light. 

Mio nodded and gestured to Kaname. “He had been traveling with Hyakkimaru and a small boy when they came to stay with us.”

Jukai released a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding inside since he woke up to find Hyakkimaru gone. The memory flashed through his mind. The sword was gone and the little pouch Hyakkimaru had given him. 

But he hadn’t taken any food. No provisions. Jukai had assumed that Hyakkimaru had finally found the opportunity to leave him. Jukai wasn’t surprised… he knew it would happen just as it had with Kaname…

He shook himself trying to focus on Mio’s face. She had kind eyes. 

“He was all right?” He asked licking his dry lips.

“He’s strange,” Mio said and Jukai’s heart sank. 

He had guessed that people would react to Hyakkimaru as such.

But then Mio smiled. “But he is so full of curiosity. You know he worked for several days just to say my name.”

Jukai’s mouth fell open. “He… he said your name? But he didn’t have a voice…?”

Mio nodded. “Kaname talked like that too. That he couldn’t feel pain before but now he can. I didn’t think anything of it… But he said that Hyakkimaru hadn’t had his right leg before...but then another demon took it again.” She frowned. “He had snuck away to get it back. I hope it saved him from the samurai…” She shuddered. 

“His leg…?” Jukai repeated.He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His heart sped. “I…”

Kaname groaned. “Glad you’re not dead.” He gave a weak grin. “You know Hyakkimaru is going to want to learn your name too.”

“What?”

“I know you think he left because of the same reasons I did… but you know he left to protect you. I couldn’t quite understand his signs because it was clear he felt guilty about it. But I know he snuck away and I know it was to protect you from the demons.” Kaname shifted into a more comfortable position.

Jukai sat back, bracing himself against the floor. Tears welled in his eyes. So Hyakkimaru had left… to protect him. Silly boy. “And he found you?”

Kaname gave a small laugh. “A small boy found him, Dororo. Little rascal was trying to make money by having Hyakkimaru slay this demon. Hyakkimaru saved me from being monster food.”

“Hyakkimaru.” Jukai wiped at the tears in his eyes. He knew he wasn’t worthy to have raised a soul such as Hyakkimaru. He had been so nervous that Hyakkimaru would get hurt or be shunned, and to hear that maybe he made a friend and was able to make connections with others…

It was too much.

He looked at Mio who had a faraway look in her eye. 

“He tried to learn your name?” He repeated and let that sink in. 

“He learned my name,” she corrected. “It was a bit tricky because he can’t hear, but we figured it out.”

Then Jukai sat up. “I should go and find him!”

Kaname shifted into a sitting position. “We can watch your house for you. I can tend Mio’s wound now that you’ve done all the initial work. You always were a better doctor than me.”

Mio’s expression darkened. “I don’t think the samurai got him. They tried coming after us, but lost us in the thick of the forest. And they set the temple on fire. So maybe Dororo, who went after Hyakkimaru, drew him away…?”

“Where was your temple?”

“In Kaga, south of the mountains of Daigo,” Kaname said. “It is a war zone now between Asakura and Daigo. The only way to go would be to head toward Daigo. That’s what the priest told me when he left.”

Jukai nodded, his anxiety growing. He needed to make sure Hyakkimaru was alive… or…. or…. he couldn’t bring himself to consider the other possibility. He looked toward the sky. “His body was given up in a deal with demons… he wouldn’t die so easily, I think.”

Kaname nodded slowly. “He is strong. He healed after only a few days of losing his leg again. He obviously was strong enough to think he could have a rematch with the demon who took it.”

“We will wait and do our best to defend your home. Is there anything I can do to repay you for your kindness?” She said. “I lost all the money I made at the temple.”

Jukai looked at her. “I am not worthy of payment. Showing kindness to my… my son is payment more than enough.”

Mio blushed deep red and Jukai felt something stir in his battered soul. Something that was not shame… but that maybe he had done something good after all when he took in that child. He thought he’d condemned it to a different form of hell… but maybe not.

That is if he could find Hyakkimaru, and if he hadn’t been killed.

And that feeling was gone again.

He would leave in the morning after making sure Kaname and Mio would be okay.

*

Something was happening. 

Even as Hyakkimaru struggled to get his leg back on and in place, he felt the tingling sensation in his head. It had quieted momentarily when he let the Bad pierce his prosthetic leg and fly off into the forest But now it was back. 

It must have found someone else then to control.

Hyakkimaru pressed his little stump into the opening and adjusted the movement so that it would suction properly, and then stood experimentally. Stamping the ground, he was satisfied. He turned his head. Where had Dororo gone? Dororo was always following him so Hyakkimaru hadn’t thought to keep track of the small being.

But now…

His chest constricted with worry. Would that being go after Dororo? No, he had disappeared off the ledge. 

Hyakkimaru turned his head again. He wasn’t exactly sure where he was in relation to… anything. He should have kept track of Dororo instead of letting him run off so quickly. But Dororo was always moving fast. Always… communicating fast. Hyakkimaru hoped that he would get to be that fast…

He started off in the direction of the strongest tingling sensation. 

He found that he didn’t use his sword so much as a cane but rather his prosthetic leg, just checking the area in front of him more often. It made him limp a little but that was okay. 

There were… beings hurrying through the forest. One stopped by him and Hyakkimaru tried to gesture for Dororo. They lingered for a moment, then grabbed his hand and began to pull him. Hyakkimaru stumbled behind them trying to pull away and tripped. 

The being leaned over him and began to pull him again.

Hyakkimaru opened his mouth and made vibrations. The being jumped back, agitated and fearful. Hyakkimaru closed his mouth. Why didn’t his vibrations work like others? And why couldn’t he feel them as they did?

The being backed away now as Hyakkimaru reached for them. Hyakkimaru again tried to make an outline for Dororo and gestured away in a searching manner. 

The being shook its head and then ran off as Hyakkimaru reached for them again. 

Anger flared in Hyakkimaru’s heart and he huffed irritably. Why couldn’t everyone be like Dororo? At least Dororo tried even when he couldn’t sign.

He continued turning his head as he moved through the forest until he came to a cliff. Carefully, he felt for the edge and turned to get as much information as he could sense. 

There!

The thin bad moving toward that empty with the may beings inside it. 

Hyakkimaru’s mouth turned down as he thought this through. He couldn’t sense things well in the empty where people gathered. When Dororo and he passed through them, he always kept close to Dororo. But he would use his prosthetic leg to feel for problems and obstacles and try to keep his balance on his real leg if there was something. 

He began moving toward the village. He would destroy this Bad. And maybe Dororo was there among the empty space. Maybe that’s where that being had been trying to lead Hyakkimaru.

The grass and forest ended and he stepped tentatively into the empty. His foot squished in the mud he hadn’t anticipated and he shuddered. He was thoroughly wet from the rain… and cold. 

He moved slowly. The beings that were usually everywhere were disappearing into things. Like Two Taps did when he went into the house. So… maybe… Hyakkimaru stretched out his arms and moved into the empty. Very vaguely he began to sense old trees that made up houses and things. It was hard to tell and many times the wood was so old he couldn’t sense it anymore. He touched a building, and then crossed to the other side of the empty. So there was a path between the faded wood. 

He turned a corner slowly and there was Dororo!

Holding the thin Bad. 

Hyakkimaru set his jaw. He needed to get that thing away from Dororo! He couldn’t lose someone else! He unsheathed his forearm. 

Dororo stumped back away from him. 

Hyakkimaru opened his mouth and then closed it remembering how his vibrations had scared that person away. 

He ran toward Dororo, swinging his sword hard. Dororo ran from him. But he pursued. His sword clashed against the Bad. He needed to use all his strength to knock it from Dororo’a hands and free him. 

He swung again and Dororo ducked. 

Hyakkimaru wasn’t trying to hurt him. 

And again! And again! Then finally the Bad was knocked into the air! Dororo stumbled and then fell into Hyakkimaru’s arms. Hyakkimaru held him close, but he couldn’t sign to Dororo as he was holding him up. He couldn’t ask him if he was okay.

Another being was back. The one from before maybe? He grabbed the Bad before Hyakkimaru could get Dororo out of the wet that came from the sky. 

Then the being ran at Hyakkimaru again swinging hard. It was all Hyakkimaru to do to dodge and get behind the being. His feet slipped in the mud and area he couldn’t sense. He needed to stay close to this being else he could end up running into a building and getting stabbed himself. 

Dodge, duck, spin, swing! The being was faster than before. Furious with murderous intent. The being began to change to match the Bad. It caught the Bad in Hyakkimaru’s forearm and he used the momentum to unsheathe his other sword and—slice!

The Bad shattered and disappeared. The being fell to the ground and began to fade. 

Like the beings on the ground at the temple. 

Hyakkimaru was frozen as he gaped at the figure. Was he… was he bad too? He made that being fade. Dororo came running up to him to help him put his arms back on.

Hyakkimaru took Dororo by the shoulders and gestured for him to stay near him. He touched his chest, but he didn’t know how to express how he felt. He opened his mouth and then before he could do anything the tingling in the sides of his head became unbearable!

He clutched at those things on his head and tried to rip them off as something pushed its way through his head! And a thundering, a great pulsing vibration began! He couldn’t! He didn’t have the words!

The world exploded.

A vibration escaped his mouth out of shock and it reverberated it in his head. Those things!! Those things on the sides of his head! It hurt and was so...so… much! There was so much all around him. 

And Dororo was there, but Hyakkimaru could hardly pay attention because of the thing going on in his head!! Then Dororo took Hyakkimaru’s hands moved to Dororo’s throat and vibrated Hyakkimaru’s hand to indicate the vibrations from the throat—

Just like Hyakkimaru’s own throat right now.

Hyakkimaru stopped vibrating his throat and something ended in the world.

Hyakkimaru’s eyes widened in sudden realization.

What were the words? Kaname had given words for the vibrations but he hadn’t understood.

He understood now:

Sound.

Ears.

Hearing.

The vibrations were sound, his voice, and he was now hearing them with his ears.

He honed in one a specific sound. A voice? A lot of voice it consumed all other sound! Hyakkimaru shuddered as it seemed to pierce his mind. 

He didn’t want this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was kind of tricky to write. Hyakkimaru doesn’t have a lot of words so describing sound was tricky but exciting. I’m excited about the following chapters! This is becoming a little of an AU, but I just want to give them happy endings and suffer along the way! I can’t help it!


	11. When the World Isn't Quiet Anymore

“What’s wrong with that boy?” a young child asked his mother who shushed him and pulled him away. 

“Don’t look at him. Something awful happened to him. He’s blind.” 

Dororo’s face heated with rage and if Hyakkimaru hadn’t been so dependent on him in that moment, he would’ve yelled at the duo. As it was, Hyakkimaru gripped Dororo’s shoulder and jolted at the tiniest sound, stumbling in his overwhelming confusion. Every once in a while, he uttered a breathy groan and then covered his mouth, shocked at the sound of his own voice. 

But this wasn’t the first time someone had veered away from Hyakkimaru. It happened before he could hear, but since he wasn’t clinging to Dororo, he was easier to ignore or write off as someone quiet and withdrawn. Now he groaned, stumbled, and clearly needed to be guided. They were chased out of the village after he regained his ears despite Hyakkimaru getting rid of their demon sword problem. As soon as the villagers saw his arms and realized he was blind, they wouldn’t let him in any inns. No one believed that he would have been able to kill the demon swordsman despite his sister calling them murderers. 

They had taken cover in one of the old shrines on the outskirts. 

Everything is different now that Hyakkimaru could hear, and Dororo is overwhelmed by it. It reminded him of when his Mama was dying. Everything had changed abruptly then too. It made him want to run away, but also to cling to Hyakkimaru, which he didn’t like for other reasons. He didn’t want to be so attached. But Hyakkimaru had protected him from that demon sword...

Since regaining his ears, Hyakkimaru did not like moving. He swayed when he walked and started at the tiniest crunch of leaves. This was worse when he had regained his sense of pain and didn’t want to walk on rocks. Hearing had thrown his sense of balance and initially Dororo found that Hyakkimaru reached for Dororo’s shoulder to steady himself. So now when they traveled, Hyakkimaru had a firm hold of Dororo’s shoulder.

Hyakkimaru stopped for the thousandth time that day, his whole body shaking as his head whipped to the left. The rain had finally stopped but the forest was still dripping with moisture and they were covered in mud. They were steadily climbing into the mountains. 

There was nothing here and it was eerily quiet, Dororo thought, so what had Hyakkimaru heard now?

“It’s nothing, Hyakkimaru-aniki,” he complained, his voice causing Hyakkimaru to jolt again. “We have to get a little higher before the sun sets. We’re too close to the road still and there are samurai traveling. I saw them.”

They also needed to find some cover. Samurai. Demons. They needed to find some sort of shelter to hide in. Or at least get far enough away from the road so that the fire they needed to properly dry off didn’t alert samurai. Dororo dragged Hyakkimaru forward who stumbled after him. They headed through the underbrush. Hyakkimaru was distracted by the wind rustling branches overhead. Finally they were far enough from the road and hidden by the forest enough that Dororo stopped.

“I’ll make a fire, Aniki,” he told Hyakkimaru. “You just relax.”

Of course Hyakkimaru didn’t respond, but trembled beside Dororo. Dororo took Hyakkimaru’s hands and made the sign for sit. Hyakkimaru sat looking haunted, eyes large, mouth open. Dororo gathered some sticks and began to build the fire. Hyakkimaru covered his ears at the sound of the sticks rubbing together. 

Once the fire was built, Dororo wrapped a spare cloth he had around Hyakkimaru’s head to soften the sound. It seemed to calm him slightly. Dororo shivered and shifted closer to the fire only barely muffling his laughs at Hyakkimaru’s new bow. 

“Aniki, we may have to take a break from demon hunting while you get used to sound,” he said thoughtfully. “You’re not fit for it and we need to clean off all this mud tomorrow so we don’t catch a cold. We’ll find a stream.”

Hyakkimaru squeezed his eyes closed and shivered, also shifting closer to the fire. 

“It’s rough feeling the cold too, huh?” Dororo remembered how his Mama used to hold him. Then shut down that memory. The forest creaked softly in the darkness of night. Hyakkimaru turned his head. 

Then turned his head again and reached for Dororo. 

“I’m still here.” Dororo patted Hyakkimaru’s hand. Hyakkimaru made a sign Dororo didn’t know but then gestured all around. Dororo guessed the meaning. “Yeah, everything has a sound. My voice. The animals in the forest. The wind in the trees.”

Hyakkimaru made a breathy groan. Then covered his mouth again, touching his throat briefly. 

“I’m sorry but you’ll have to get used to it,” Dororo laughed. “And you’re voice too. I want to talk with you eventually.”

Hyakkimaru’s brow furrowed and then touched Dororo’s hands a little roughly. 

“What?”

Hyakkimaru winced at his voice, but shook Dororo’s hands and then opened and closed his mouth. 

“Ah, Aniki, I don’t sign as well as Kaname…” He murmured, and Hyakkimaru shook his hands again. Of course. This made sense. Hyakkimaru wanted to know what he was saying. Or wanted him to stop talking. Both were possible. Probably both were correct. Dororo did the best he could to indicate through signs that he wanted to hear Hyakkimaru’s voice and communicate with him. He had to do it a few times. 

Hyakkimaru frowned and clamped his mouth closed. 

Meaning got across. 

Dororo laughed. 

They fell asleep not long after.

The next day, Dororo dragged Hyakkimaru to a shallow stream for them to bathe in. Hyakkimaru stopped as soon as it was possible to hear the water. Dororo yanked him forward. “We’re not there yet and we’re going to wash this mud off! I don’t even know the last time you washed any of your prosthetics!”

Hyakkimaru stumbled forward, thrown off balance by Dororo’s voice. As soon as his foot touched the stream he jumped. With some effort, he managed to tell Hyakkimaru to undress and soon they were both mostly naked in the water. Dororo signed for him to sit and made a washing motion. 

“Wash,” Dororo said while making Hyakkimaru’s hands rub his forearms and under his arms. “We’re dirty.”

He could have imagined it but he thought Hyakkimaru’s mouth attempted to copy the word. But then it clamped closed again. 

The water was cool but not cold, which felt good over Dororo’s weary feet. He eyed Hyakkimaru as he tested the water, and then splashed him. Hyakkimaru grunted in surprise and his eyebrows furrowed. 

Dororo laughed and Hyakkimaru winced. “Lighten up, Aniki. It’s just water.” He splashed Hyakkimaru again. “You need to wash your greasy hair too.” He cupped his hands and spilt water over Hyakkimaru’s head. Then he pulled Hyakkimaru’s band off and made a scrubbing motion in Hyakkimaru’s hair. 

Hyakkimaru grunted again, but this time it had the sound of someone giving in. Dororo laughed and began washing his own hair. He was glad Hyakkimaru couldn’t see, because this would otherwise be incredibly uncomfortable. Dororo tried his very best never to be naked in front of anyone. Hyakkimaru wasn’t even trying to point his face at him too preoccupied with moving his prosthetic hands through his own long wild hair and drenching it in water. 

Dororo couldn’t help but stare as Hyakkimaru then carefully removed his prosthetic leg, and the bandages there and unselfconsciously began washing his little nub. Dororo crossed his arms over his chest feeling vulnerable. The prosthetic began to float away without Hyakkimaru knowing. Dororo grabbed it and placed it on the bank. 

“You should be more careful,” he said as he came up behind Hyakkimaru. 

Hyakkimaru stopped moving and touched his arms tentatively. There was a strange emotion on his face. 

“What’s wrong, Aniki?” Dororo asked. Hyakkimaru’s fingers lingered where the prosthetic began at his arms. Tension swirled in Dororo’s stomach. 

Hyakkimaru made a strange outlining gesture that looked like someone big. Then gestured to his arms and made a washing sign with a scowl. Dororo stared for a few moments before Hyakkimaru reached for Dororo’s hands and then repeated the signs with Dororo’s hands over his. 

He remembered what Kaname said about Hyakkimaru not knowing if Dororo was paying attention if they weren’t touching. 

“I was watching, Aniki,” Dororo said, patting Hyakkimaru’s shoulder so he could feel it. “I’m not sure what you’re saying though it looks like you don’t like washing your arms. I’d say that’s fine but my Mama always warned me that you can get sick if you don’t wash sometimes.”

Hyakkimaru scowled and made the outline sign of a person. Maybe Kaname? But then signed and gestured for Dororo to help him take off his arms. 

“I’ll help you take them off,” Dororo repeated verbally. Maybe if he just kept speaking, Hyakkimaru would learn… Maybe? Again nervousness swirled in Dororo’s stomach as his hands neared Hyakkimaru’s prosthetic. Hyakkimaru made a twisting motion with his other hand to help Dororo. It took a few minutes, but the prosthetic did come off revealing the nub just below his shoulder. Dororo took off the other arm and carefully helped Hyakkimaru wash his real skin. It was moon white from never seeing the sun and red where the prosthetic was suctioned against the skin tightly. Hyakkimaru shuddered and grunted softly as Dororo massaged the irritated skin. 

“It looks like you should give your arms a break sometimes,” Dororo whispered. “Does it hurt?”

Hyakkimaru didn’t answer, but his eyes squeezed shut was answer enough. He must really trust Dororo to let him do this, Dororo thought. 

“Aniki, there are things I don’t let people see either. But it doesn’t make us weak, okay! We’re just different and stronger for it!” Dororo said. 

They finished washing. Dororo looped his arm around Hyakkimaru’s waist to stabilize him as he hopped toward the bank of the river to sit in the grass. Dororo cleaned Hyakkimaru’s prosthetic bandages in the river while Hyakkimaru waited on the shore. Every so often Hyakkimaru turned his head to some sound Dororo didn’t notice. Looking at Hyakkimaru without his prosthetics, learning about sound, and trying his best to exist in this world, Dororo vowed that he would stay with him and help him do whatever he needed to do. 

If that was hunting for the demons that have his body, then so be it. 

They hung their clothes in the sun back at their campsite to let them dry. Dororo thoroughly cleaned Hyakkimaru’s prosthetics inside and out making sure there was no more blood or mud anywhere. Meanwhile Hyakkimaru’s toes pulled at the grass and he rocked just the slightest bit. Dororo had a suspicion that Hyakkimaru didn’t think Dororo could notice because it was so slight. Hyakkimaru’s face was angled toward the branches and leaves above rustling quietly in the wind. A few birds tweeted and sang softly. 

As the things were drying in the sun, Dororo came to sit by Hyakkimaru and pull weeds and grass with his hands. Hyakkimaru’s face turned toward the action and tilted to the side. 

“I wonder what you see,” Dororo said. “The priest said you see souls. But I wonder what thats like.”

Hyakkimaru cocked his head in question. Dororo tapped the corner of Hyakkimaru’s eye and made the question sign. Hyakkimaru blinked slowly.

“I guess you wouldn’t know how to describe it even if you did have the words,” Dororo said. 

Hyakkimaru stretched his shoulders, muscles moving under his skin. 

“They’re not dry yet,” Dororo said. “Just a little longer. Your skin is looking better.” He touched the now pink skin on the nub of Hyakkimaru’s shoulder. Hyakkimaru flinched.  
The wind calmed as the day passed on and finally Dororo began wrapping the fresh and clean bandages around Hyakkimaru’s stumps. Hyakkimaru shifted excitedly. His hair was still loose and blew into his face. He spit it out. Dororo laughed. 

“Hold on, hold on!”

Then Hyakkimaru made a noise. Not a grunt. A noise. Dororo’s hands paused. But then Hyakkimaru jerked his shoulder impatiently. Dororo replaced the prosthetics and Hyakkimaru secured them into place on his own. 

“Did you make a noise, Aniki?” Dororo asked and tapped Hyakkimaru’s throat. 

Hyakkimaru leaned forward and searched for the dirt by the fire pit. Then traced characters there. He took Dororo’s hand and made Dororo feel the characters. Then he sat back and pointed at himself, then touched his throat with Dororo’s hand.

Dororo recognized the characters though he couldn’t read them. 

“That’s your name, Aniki,” he said slowly, confused.

Hyakkimaru’s eyebrows furrowed together. “Ah…” he said in a low forced voice, wincing, but forcing himself to continue. “Ah...nnnni...khi…” Hyakkimaru shuddered at his own voice.

Dororo laughed. “No, no, no! Whoops! That’s just what I call you. I understand now!” He shook his head no against Hyakkimaru’s forehead. He patted the character’s with Hyakkimaru’s hand. “Hya-kki-maru.” He said slowly and then touched Hyakkimaru’s chest. “Hyakkimaru.”

Hyakkimaru nodded, mouth open. “H-ha…” His eyebrows furrowed as his mouth worked, but he didn’t say more. 

Dororo laughed. “Yeah, your name is long, Hyakkimaru. Hard to say, right?” He brought Hyakkimaru’s hand to his own chest. “Dororo.”

Again Hyakkimaru’s mouth worked, but his lips didn’t look like they were forming right. Dororo again wondered how Mio taught him. 

An idea struck him and his cheeks heated. “Now, don’t get the wrong idea, Aniki-I mean, Hyakkimaru, but I think this will help.”

Dororo brought his face to Hyakkimaru’s cheek and spoke gesturing first to Hyakkimaru and then to himself. “Hyakkimaru. Dororo.”

When he sat back, Hyakkimaru’s mouth was working.

“Ha-kki-mmm,” he said and then shook his head as though he ate something sour. “D-doorrgh…” He stuck out his tongue.

“I have a good name, right?” Dororo said, his heart swelling that Hyakkimaru was at least trying to say his name. “You’ll get it.”

They cooked fish from the river, and Hyakkimaru tolerated Dororo to keep talking for a little while longer before he covered his ears again. 

It was peaceful. 

But they couldn’t stay here forever. 

A demon would come. Or samurai.


	12. The Story of Stones

Hyakkimaru constantly had a headache since he regained his ears. But things were getting more tolerable… barely. He didn’t jump at random sounds or cling to Dororo as much. They lingered at that location for another day or so before Dororo led him to a village. That day they rested, Dororo had gone around naming everything he could think of. Hyakkimaru had some signs for some things but not for others. 

Dororo had pointed up to the great nothing and said, “Sky. Moon. Sun.” Hyakkimaru wasn’t sure what all that meant.And when it rained, Dororo told him what it was. Slow with only one word at a time. It seemed everything had a word for it. Why didn’t he have signs for all these words? Why was he different? Why had the demons taken things away from him? Did he do something wrong? He remembered Two Taps trying to tell him before he ran away, but Hyakkimaru didn’t really understand. 

They had slept under another shrine as Dororo called it when they got to the next village. It was hard for Hyakkimaru to sometimes isolate words of things as Dororo was always speaking. Hyakkimaru could barely keep up and Dororo didn’t always clue Hyakkimaru into what he was talking about. Hyakkimaru sometimes cut in to show that he wanted to know, but Dororo’s signs were sloppy and sometimes he was talking about something that wasn’t even around them. 

There had been nothing to eat in that village and Hyakkimaru didn’t slay the demon there. The demon was a good demon. And Hyakkimaru didn’t want to make things disappear that were good. He didn’t want to be bad. He didn’t want to scare Dororo the way he made other people feel. That was more apparent. Maybe they sensed he was bad. He didn’t want to be like the bad that made Kaname’s leg disappear. 

Or that made Kaname or Mio disappear forever. 

And he didn’t want to hurt Dororo, but Dororo never left him. Even if Hyakkimaru wandered off, Dororo came after him and yelled at him for doing so. That was… good. 

Dororo, however, had done something strange when they were heading to that other village with nothing to eat. He had wanted Hyakkimaru to “laugh,” which Hyakkimaru wasn’t sure what that was. But when Dororo hadn’t killed that spider that fell on his face, Hyakkimaru had given a small shake, and with that shake came a little noise. 

“You laughed!” Dororo accused him, causing him to jolt at the noise. “I heard you! But that’s…” and then he went on with a string of words Hyakkimaru didn’t understand because he didn’t know them and Dororo spoke too quickly. 

Laughing. That’s what the good shakes were called. 

They walked out of the forest into a rocky terrain. Hyakkimaru slowed automatically when the trees disappeared. He kept closer to Dororo and walked behind him to use him as something to guide him. If he walked where Dororo walked, most likely there wouldn’t be anything to run into or trip on. 

“Why am I always the only one talking?” Dororo exclaimed, slow enough for Hyakkimaru to catch all the words. 

He frowned. He didn’t like what he knew would come next. He took a step back.   
“Aniki!” Dororo whined using the name that wasn’t his name. “I know you can talk! Let’s ( ) talking!” He didn’t know the one word. 

Hyakkimaru hated the sound of his own voice. He had tried several times to say things but most of the time it was nothing like anything Dororo said. When he did try, Dororo usually didn’t even realize Hyakkimaru was trying to speak. That’s how awful his words were. 

“Say something!” Dororo demanded. 

Hyakkimaru clamped his mouth closed stubbornly making Dororo yell to which he covered his ears and signed for him to settle down/be quiet. Dororo groaned. Hyakkimaru turned toward a group of people moving slowly on the other side of the chasm. He had almost walked off into the chasm earlier but Dororo had grabbed him. 

Dororo said something Hyakkimaru didn’t understand. 

There was movement in Hyakkimaru’s periphery and he turned to see someone slide down what must be the side of the mountain and shoot a faded piece of wood. Dororo yelled at the person and they began talking. Hyakkimaru caught the word “monster” and tried to pay more attention, brow furrowing in his attempt to understand. 

Why couldn’t Dororo just sign? 

He felt that he could almost understand things. He could catch words here and there, but couldn’t actually follow what they were saying. How could he speak when he could barely understand what they were saying? He sort of understood that the monster was doing something and that Dororo was saying probably that Hyakkimaru could kill the monster. If it was a bad monster… the last monster hadn’t been bad. 

Hyakkimaru’s headache worsened. 

But he followed Dororo and the new kid, Saru (?), after the group of people. The air was instantly different and Hyakkimaru’s thing in the middle of his face tingled. Saru went up to another being sitting. Hyakkimaru didn’t quite understand the emotion he felt coming from this person. But there was definitely a monster here. A demon. He didn’t know the difference between those words if there was a difference. 

He unsheathed his arms. 

But when the demon came it was different than before. Everything around Hyakkimaru turned Bad. He turned, searching for Dororo. But he couldn’t find them. It was like he fell into nothingness, or was eaten by the Bad. He was trapped. 

There was…

A sound. A Bad sound from the monster. It moved above and around them. Hyakkimaru tried to pinpoint it but his hearing was still so new. Someone screamed and he worried it was Dororo! He turned again and opened his mouth but forgot how to form the words. 

“Aniki, it’s coming!” 

Relief was only a second before he was turning trying to locate the monster. It was going to hurt Dororo and Hyakkimaru couldn’t find it! He turned and turned, but nothing changed! Where was it?!

Just then something hot and wet shot into the air cutting through the Bad and creating contrast so that Hyakkimaru could sense the outline of the monster. It was huge! How was he going to be able to fight this?

*

“Aniki,” Dororo came up to him when they finally stopped. They were at Saru’s home, wherever that was. Hyakkimaru had been careful to try and remember the turns they had taken and any landmarks he could sense so that he could make it back down to where they had come from. 

His blood was hot with irritation and frustration. Dororo and Saru could sense it, why couldn’t he? Was it the tingling in the middle of his face? Is that how they could sense that monster? Hyakkimaru had never given much thought to the world beyond what he could sense, but now that he had sound, he wondered, what else did other people have that he didn’t? People didn’t lose things like he did. They didn’t have to be guided like he did sometimes. They lived in those empty spaces and obviously didn’t worry about tripping or getting lost. He gritted his teeth but tried to keep focused. 

He raised his hand and gestured in a way that indicated he wanted to know what was around him. Dororo began leading him around. “Cave. Saru’s home.” Dororo said slowly and said some other things. Hyakkimaru gestured for him to slow down and to sign. Sign at least a little, he thought with a frustrated sigh. 

Saru was watching and he ignored the tingling on his back. 

Dororo led Hyakkimaru around the perimeter and inside, signing about the walls and what was there as best as he could. That way Hyakkimaru could be more independent. WHere was the wood? Even fading wood was better than stone. 

“What are you doing?” Saru asked. 

“Hyakkimaru can’t see. He’s blind,” Dororo answered and then said something Hyakkimaru didn’t understand. Hyakkimaru had heard him say those words a few times in the other village when things got tense with other people. He didn’t quite understand them. He did understand “can’t” though meaning it was something Hyakkimaru didn’t have the ability to do. Like “no.”

There was some faded wood things inside the cave home. Hyakkimaru felt them, turning his head this way and that. It seemed like they were used for hunting. Two Taps had one. 

“That’s a bow, Aniki,” Dororo said. “And arrows.” He brought Hyakkimaru’s hand to the things beside the curved faded green. Then Hyakkimaru felt the opening of the cave and the rubble outside.

Hyakkimaru trailed the outside of the cave with his hand until his real foot bumped the rubble and stones. He squatted down and an idea came to him. Maybe he could learn how to hear things in the distance better if he tossed these stones as far as he could. Maybe he could train himself to hit the same spot again and again. 

Dororo came up to him before he could find his first stone. 

“He’s blind?” Saru repeated and asked a question. 

Hyakkimaru tried to focus on their words again. He didn’t like being talked about. 

“He sees with his soul.” Dororo had said that before too but Hyakkimaru didn’t understand. “The Priest said that people are white and monsters are red. But I don’t know.”

Hyakkimaru really didn’t understand what all that meant. Monsters are red? People are white? People were people. Monsters were monsters. His headache throbbed and he decided to tune them out as they dived into another conversation.

He picked up a rock and tossed it, hearing it land… somewhere. 

He sighed. Picked up another rock and tossed it in what he hoped was the same direction. It landed… somewhere a little further left. Again and again. But he really wasn’t sure where the rocks were landing. 

Then one landed on another rock and it made a particularly sharp CLACK sound. 

Okay, he thought, let’s try to hit the CLACK area. 

He rolled his shoulder and adjusted his prosthetic hand. 

He could do this. He had to. He had to not be Bad. He had to be good. For Dororo.


	13. The Story of Being Brave

Hyakkimaru spent half the night practicing localizing sound with the stone when another sound caught his attention. He wandered into Saru’s cave home and heard both boys crying in their sleep. He didn’t understand why but he wanted it to stop. 

The… what did Dororo call it? The bow and arrows caught his attention. If he remembered correctly, this was something that worked like throwing the stone. If the demon was high above, he could use this.

He grabbed it and went back outside. Standing more or less where he had been earlier, he inspected the bow, feeling its shape. Of course with his hands, he couldn’t get as many details as he wanted. 

There was a small irritated sound from his throat. 

Crouching down, he brought the bow to his face so he could move his cheek against it. One side was string. He tested the give with his hands. It was hard to balance the bow in his hand and then hold the bow. He practiced several times before he got it. He wasn’t sure how long it had been but eventually he began to feel a warmth on his face. 

Dororo and Saru woke from inside and went about planning something. 

“Hyakkimaru-aniki,” Dororo said coming up to him and placing his hands on the bow to get his attention. The arrow fell from his hand, distracting him from Dororo’s words as he tried to keep the faded wood in focus so he wouldn’t lose it. Then he said something else but Hyakkimaru was so distracted that he didn’t catch it. 

Hyakkimaru cocked his head. 

Dororo took his hands, taking the bow and placing it against the rock wall behind him. 

“Hyakkimaru-aniki,” Dororo said again. Saru was calling Dororo’s name. Dororo signed as he spoke this time. “Stay here.” Then he said something that obviously there was no hand signs for. Hyakkimaru tried to focus on the words. He heard: “I know… you… can’t…I'm brave, you know! You... safe…” Then Dororo gestured for Hyakkimaru to stay here. 

Dororo ran after Saru. 

Something squirmed in Hyakkimaru’s chest. 

Can’t meant something he didn’t have the ability to do. 

He didn’t like that word. He didn’t want to be restricted by “can’t.” He clenched his teeth. He could do this! He just needed more time. More practice. 

In the distance, the Bad was gathering. 

He felt the ground for the bow and arrow. Twisting his shoulders as he had been practicing all night to do, he managed to get his hands in the right positions to set the arrow in the bow. He pulled the arrow back and shot it.

He heard the plunk.

This was an important part. He didn’t extend his hands, but walked purposefully to where he heard the plunk. Of course, as soon as it was in range, he could sense the faded wood. He wouldn’t be able to do that in the Bad area. Regardless, his lips twitched. 

Again, he thought. 

He had to be flawless. 

He had to do this for Dororo. He didn’t want Dororo to think “can’t.”

He stood in the same spot and set the arrow again. And again he let the arrow fly, this time jumping toward where he heard the sound. Close, but a little off. That wouldn’t do. He did it again. And again. 

The creature roared. 

He froze. 

A thought occurred to him. What had Dororo been talking about when he said “can’t” to Hyakkimaru. He thought of the words “safe” and “here.” Did that mean that Dororo and Saru were going after the demon themselves? He turned sharply toward where he remembered they had disappeared. 

Everything was so empty and they were gone. He had to go after them. Dororo couldn’t handle that demon on his one! Dororo didn’t have a sword, and it was huge! Bigger than any demon Hyakkimaru had ever encountered. He tried to move quickly and stumbled on a rock. 

Gritting his teeth, another irritated sound came from his throat. “D-durrrgh....” he said in his low strange voice, unsure if Dororo would be able to hear him. 

There was no answer. 

If he wanted to move quickly, he would have to use Two Taps’ sword to feel the area ahead of him, like he did with his sticks before he left Two Taps. Exhaling, he needed something to wrap the arrows to free up his hands. Feeling his way inside Saru’s home, he searched for something to help him carry the arrows. His hands snagged in some fabric. That would work. He wrapped the bow and arrows in the fabric and went back out.

Facing the path Saru and Dororo took and trying to draw his mental map of the path they had taken after they left the demon yesterday, he took his sword from his waist and began tapping back and forth ahead of him, half running as he did so. He veered occasionally and bumped stones and boulders along the sides of the path, but he continued quickly and adjusted his direction as he encountered obstacles. Halfway down, he heard the demon and the screams of maybe Dororo and Saru!

He hurried faster toward the sound, finally having a concrete direction!

And entered the Bad. 

There was suddenly an awesome heat!

He stumbled to the edge of a cliff, sword dipping down into nothingness. He stopped and listened. He tapped the sword against the rock, hearing the distinction of the ground before him, and the echoing space beyond. The demon was just before him growling and thrashing in the air. It was too close to be on the ground below. 

So it was for sure a flying demon. 

He tapped the stone with the sword again. There was something to his right ahead of him. He tapped as he neared it, hearing the echoing sound change as he neared the object. It was a boulder. Exploring it, it had a crack down the middle.

The demon roared. 

Hyakkimaru didn’t want to lose it. He found a stone and threw it toward where he thought the demon was, listening to the sound location. It connected! He heard the demon shift toward him. 

Then he quickly pulled the arrows and bow from the fabric and set the arrow. He forced his hands to set the arrow before letting it fly in the direction of where he thought the beast was. It came in contact with something. 

The fabric blew off his shoulder. 

He let another arrow fly. This time he was sure it hit the demon as the demon sounded like it was moving closer. Hyakkimaru set a third arrow and it hit the demon for sure in the face. Using his best estimates as how the demon must face him, he ran, purposefully catching his arm in the rock to unsheathe his sword.

He jumped slashing. 

And slashed the demon! It crashed to the ground making the whole world shake!

He heard Dororo’s voice, excited. Saru’s voice was questioning. 

Landing on his feet, he listened intently, turning his head. He still couldn’t sense anything. The Bad wasn’t disappearing. The ground cracked and rumbled as the demon moved. Hyakkimaru jumped back instinctively, getting shoved by the demon as he did so! He didn’t know what he was landing on and fell hard against the stone earth. 

Struggling, he tried to gain his bearings and keep his face pointed toward the massive demon. 

Dororo shouted. His voice moving through the air as though he was jumping. 

Hyakkimaru turned his head. 

“Aniki! Follow my voice! I’m on its head!” Dororo called to him and by some miracle Hyakkimaru understood him perfectly. 

Voice! He could follow Dororo’s voice and keep track of the demon!

The demon growled and moved, crashing into rocks as it circled Hyakkimaru. 

Hyakkimaru turned, listening for Dororo. He could hear the demon but it was moving too quickly for him to know where its head was without Dororo saying something. Why wasn’t Dororo saying anything??

His mouth worked but there was no time for struggling with names, he would have to do that later! He opened his mouth and tried to put all his effort into calling for Dororo.

“Hah-Ahhh!”

It didn’t sound like Dororo’s name at all, just noise, but he knew Dororo would know he was calling for him. 

Where are you?

Dororo!

He screamed. 

The demon came at him suddenly and tossed him back. He used his right forearm to unsheath his left arm. The demon raged at him, something stabbing against his back. He screamed louder. The demon tossed him up in the air. 

“Aniki! Right here! It’s eye is right in front of me to the left!”

Hyakkimaru squinted, calculating. He had one chance! He twisted his body and slashed. Immediately the Bad that prevented him from sensing anything lifted! He let himself fall into the demon and slashed from the inside. 

It crumbled away and they fell into water. 

Saru came running to them and then waded into the water. He kept saying sister. Hyakkimaru could sense the woman from earlier, still alive! But he didn’t have time before his face tingled and suddenly something fell into the water. 

The middle of his face burned as air rushed inside!

Bad air!

He covered his new part, making a small irritated noise.

....

“Dororo,” Saru’s sister said perfectly. 

Dororo began talking to them. Hyakkimaru tried focusing. It didn’t hurt his ears anymore so much to listen. And he wanted to call out if Dororo needed him. He wanted to communicate without touching because that wasn’t always possible.

“Names are important,” Saru’s sister said distracting Hyakkimaru from his thoughts. 

Names were important. Words were important. Everything had a name. A word. He brought the sweet smelling thing, Dororo called a flower, closer to his face to block out the other bad sense. 

They began walking away. 

He didn’t want Dororo to think he couldn’t do something. He could do something. He could take care of and protect Dororo. Just as Two Taps did to him. 

Ready to brave his new sense, he took a few more sniffs of the flower before he handed it to Dororo so that the kid wouldn’t have to deal with this bad sense. He took a deep breath and worked his tongue and lips. 

“D-doh-roro.”

“Aniki, this sense is called smell, got it?”

Hyakkimaru’s shoulders slumped. He guessed he hadn’t said it right for Dororo to notice. 

He sniffed.

Smell. 

He sniffed using his, what did Dororo call it? Nose. The air smelled bad. He didn’t like it, but it connected him to world just that much more. He would bear it. 

Dororo stopped suddenly behind him, “Did you just say ‘Dororo?’”

Hyakkimaru’s lips quirked, but he kept walking. 

“This is the first time you’ve said my name…”

Names were important. 

…

Jukai was nearing Daigo’s land. He had kept near the border trying to stay off the road after hearing the dispute between Asakura and Daigo from Kaname and Mio. 

But he wasn’t sure if this was any safer.

Bodies littered the borders here and there. Warnings of war. 

As much as he was trying to put his past behind him, he was drawn to the dead, closing their eyes, covering their lost decaying limbs, and always making sure he didn’t see Hyakkimaru’s face among them. Though every time he stepped over to view the corpse's face, he felt he would lose his nerve and turn away. But he couldn't. He had to be brave for Hyakkimaru, so he had to search. He had to be sure. And he had to keep going. 

"He's going to want to talk to you and learn your name," Kaname had told him when he left. "You better be ready.” 

“Hyakkimaru,” he whispered into the night as though it was a prayer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! But it's done finally done. Until the next chapter!


	14. The World Is Always Coming At Me

Dororo didn’t realize how much work it would be to teach Hyakkimaru to speak. Hyakkimaru got tired quickly but since the demon with Saru, he was more and more willing to work at it. At night or when they were resting, Hyakkimaru would point to something and ask for the word by gesturing to his mouth. 

So they went over all the body parts. The trees. The grass. The flowers. Smells. Directions. Hyakkimaru didn’t always remember them and he still had trouble replicating the words, but it was a start. He still used lots of signs, which Dororo was sometimes grateful for when he couldn’t understand Hyakkimaru’s speech. He was afraid to tell Hyakkimaru that though since he was still very nervous about speaking and refused to let other people hear him speak. 

That is until Dororo got sick and it forced him to seek out help. 

Vaguely, Dororo remembered Hyakkimaru’s strangled speech as he tried to convey that Dororo was sick. “D-do-ro-ro...bah-dee...hot.”

And again with the nun, while Dororo slept with fever, asking the same thing over and over. “Do-roro… okay?”

Dororo focused on the task at hand, washing Hyakkimaru’s kimono… again. There were nearing Daigo and supposedly that was a rich town. Dororo was excited. They would be able to find some decent food there. And would be a good break from wandering. 

“Manju?” Hyakkimaru repeated Dororo.

“They’re sweet and delicious. You’ll love them,” Dororo affirmed and rinsed the kimono one more time before laying it out to dry.

When it was high noon and the kimono was dry, they set off again. 

“Do-roro,” Hyakkimaru said, pulling Dororo back to the present. It was sprinkle just a little and they were lightly damp. Like a tease for rice fields, not enough to actually provide water. 

“Say it again, Hyakkimaru!” Dororo called to him, making his voice purposefully deeper. Hyakkimaru had refused to answer him when he asked about if the nun had said anything. So they would just ignore it then. Maybe Hyakkiamru hadn’t understood. They hadn’t talked about gender yet. 

Hyakkimaru did something weird then. He motioned for Dororo to stay. Then took a few steps back. “Dororo,” he said. It was the clearest yet. Then he cupped the back of his ear and gestured toward Dororo.

Can you hear me? He was asking Dororo.

“Of course I can hear you, Aniki!” Dororo called laughing as the rain got louder. “Say it again, Hyakkimaru!”

Hyakkimaru backed up a little more and then called, “Dororo!”

“Again, again, Hyakkimaru!” Dororo laughed and pranced around to a different spot. 

Hyakkimaru shifted toward his new location. Dororo squinted, was Hyakkimaru smiling? 

“Dororo!” Hyakkimaru called again.

“Hyakkimaru!” Dororo called back and raced to a new spot. 

Hyakkimaru moved behind a tree. “Dororo!”

“I can still hear you, Hyakkimaru!” Dororo called and ran toward Hyakkimaru trying to surprise him from behind the tree he was hiding. 

Hyakkimaru didn’t react.

He was sniffing the damp trunk of the tree, distracted completely, but the smile still played on his lips. Dororo stared at him for a long moment. How did Hyakkimaru experience the world? He leaned toward the tree to inhale the wet wood smell himself, letting it fill his nostrils. Hyakkimaru pressed his face into the trunk, feeling the bark against his skin. Dororo copied him, feeling the roughness of the bark against his cheek. It was cold. 

Dororo noticed that Hyakkimaru had signed the word tree as he moved back, but he didn’t say it. 

“You talking to the tree, Aniki?” he joked. 

Hyakkimaru cocked his head for a moment, then touched the tree again. His expression seemed thoughtful. He gestured to himself, then to the tree, and made the sign for same. 

“You are the same as a tree?” Dororo asked, confusion coloring his voice. “Aniki, you’re not the same as a tree. You can move about and talk, and you know, you’re different.”

Hyakkimaru shook his head. “Same.” Then he thought for a moment. He gestured around. “The world...always...coming at me. Like tree.”

The world was always coming at him…?

Dororo thought about that for a moment. He supposed that could be true. Hyakkimaru hadn’t been able to sense much until recently. Everything was constantly invading his experience, and before, even Dororo had come into his life without warning or his consent. Dororo shuddered. He didn’t like the thought of being that vulnerable. He was grateful Hyakkimaru was strong. He wouldn’t know what he would do if he were in Hyakkimaru’s shoes. 

“Come on, Hyakkimaru.” Dororo tugged Hyakkimaru’s hand. 

“Dororo.”

Hyakkimaru let himself be led by Dororo. Dororo noticed that Hyakkimaru didn’t turn his head unless there was a monster or something wrong that he could sense. Dororo used that as part of his surveillance for danger. If Hyakkimaru was contently being guided or following, then there was no danger. If it looked like he was looking around, there was danger. 

As it was, Hyakkimaru was taking deep inhales through his nose, and cocking his head as he heard different things. 

A few birds were chirping. With a sly grin, Dororo eyed Hyakkimaru and then whistled like the birds. Hyakkimaru stopped completely. He gestured at Dororo with a look of shock. 

Dororo whistled again. Birds seemed to answer him. 

Hyakkimaru gestured to Dororo and then vaguely to where he heard the sound in the trees. Dororo supposed Hyakkimaru couldn’t identify them hidden in the foliage. Hyakkimaru pointed to his mouth.

“Talk to…” Hyakkimaru gestured again to the birds in the trees.

Dororo laughed. “No, I’m just copying the sound. I’m a good whistler, right?”

Hyakkimaru’s eyebrows came together in confusion. 

Dororo whistled again, startling Hyakkimaru. Through his giggles, he said, “This is called whistling.”

Hyakkimaru brought his lips together but nothing came out.

“Whistling is hard, aniki, I don’t think you’ll be able to do it until you get better with talking,” Dororo said. 

Hyakkimaru tried again, engaging his voice and made more of a groan than a whistle. Dororo laughed again. 

“I’ll teach you someday.”

Hyakkimaru pressed his lips together irritably. Then he came close to Dororo again, but letting Dororo lead the way. Dororo was slowly getting better at what Hyakkimaru could and couldn’t see. He could sense anything alive. But that meant he couldn’t see anything in the sky or dirt or rocks or water. He could sometimes sense wood, but not all the time. Dororo noticed that when they walked on the dirt road, Hyakkimaru usually walked behind him and followed Dororo’s path almost exactly. 

Dororo looked ahead, spotting a small village. They could make a quick stop there and ask for directions to this rich town. Hyakkimaru would probably need help in the town. He remembered how Hyakkimaru moved in the town of the sword demon. Lots of empty space. 

Dororo took Hyakkimaru’s hand again. 

As they began nearing the town, Hyakkimaru began slowing just a little. 

“Come on, Aniki, just stick close to me,” Dororo tried to comfort him and tugged him forward. 

There were a few people on the road now. A few stared at Hyakkimaru. Dororo didn’t know what it was, but other people must see something about Hyakkimaru’s expression that identified him as different. Before when Hyakkimaru was struggling with his hearing, he supposed Hyakkimaru looked more blind. But in general, Dororo thought he could pass pretty well. It’s just after spending a few moments with Hyakkimaru that the struggle to communicate would set in and that he never turned his head, never looked. Also he never bowed. 

Dororo thought for a moment, taking note of Hyakkimaru’s lack of body language. Hyakkimaru never bowed or greeted people properly. He definitely never apologized. He paused for a moment. 

“Aniki, do you know what bowing is?” Dororo asked. 

Of course Hyakkimaru didn’t answer.

Dororo bowed, feeling a bit awkward about it as he also rarely bowd, but it was an important thing to know. “Can you tell what I’m doing? This is important, Aniki. People will expect you to do this sometimes.”

Hyakkimaru shifted slightly and made the slightest bow. But it wasn’t right. Dororo straightened his back and pushed him to be a bit lower. 

“Why?” Hyakkimaru asked.

“It’s polite, that’s why.”

“Po...light?” Hyakkimaru stood up straight and gestured vaguely above. “Light?” Dororo knew Hyakkimaru didn’t have the faintest clue what light was. He did understand that Dororo needed the heat of the sun to travel though. That much they had been able to agree upon. 

Before Dororo could answer, Hyakkimaru suddenly bolted. 

“Aniki!”

Hyakkimaru raced along the edges of the village, avoiding the roads and houses, and most people for that matter until he came to a lake. Dororo stopped, eyes wide. There was a humongous crab monster about to eat this one boy caught in the rip tide!

Dororo shouted directions, but he wasn’t sure Hyakkimaru even needed them as he jumped, swords suddenly unsheathed and slashed that monster. 

Dororo went looking for the prosthetic arms. When he came up to Hyakkimaru, there was something strange about his expression. And his face was angled toward that boy. 

He looked wealthy even drenched. 

Dororo turned back to Hyakkimaru. “What is it?” 

This was the second monster that Hyakkimaru hadn’t recovered anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This scene where they are calling each other's names is from the 2007 movie after Hyakkimaru recovers his voice. I just felt like there wasn't enough scenes in the anime with them just experiencing things together and Hyakkimaru exploring his senses. So I tried to have some of that in this chapter.


	15. Crowds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There may been some ableist language in this chapter and that’s only because of period at which Dororo is set, and that Hyakkimaru really doesn’t have a community with which to identify with, and can only compare himself to the people he encounters. From what I vaguely remember about my Japanese history class, being blind was considered worse than being a criminal in samurai society. People tend to be afraid of what they don’t understand. That said this was a tricky chapter to write.

Jukai had rarely taken Hyakkimaru to town with him. He thought about this as he passed through towns and heard rumors about a boy with no arms slaying demons in the area. Hyakkimaru used to cling to Jukai. 

There had been a time when Jukai was trying to come up with a way for Hyakkimaru to communicate to others in the village just in case Jukai was injured or when the time came when he would die and Hyakkimaru would left on his own. Hyakkimaru could mime what he wanted, but the trick came to whether people truly paid attention to him.

There had been one day when Hyakkimaru was around thirteen when a samurai lord and his son passed through their village on a hunting trip. He had been treating a local for an illness and had taken Hyakkimaru with him. 

Hyakkimaru had kept close to him as usual, but the family of the patient was afraid of his masked face and so Jukai told him to wait outside. 

The issue happened when the lord passed through and everyone bowed but Hyakkimaru did not. 

They approached Hyakkimaru swords drawn and shoved him to the ground. 

Jukai came running. “He can’t see or hear! Please!”

The Lord did not dismount from his horse but continued forward, but his son watched Hyakkimaru. His eyes narrowed at the signs Jukai did to communicate with him. The samurai shoved Jukai down beside Hyakkimaru who was struggling to get his bearings and feeling for his staff that they had knocked away. 

“What were you doing?” The Lord’s son asked as he approached. The samurai guards backed off and Hyakkimaru finally located his staff. He touched Jukai’s shoulder questioning if he was okay. Jukai patted Hyakkimaru’s shoulder to affirm he was. 

“I’m talking to him. He has to use his hands to speak,” Jukai explained with his head bent down.

“That’s sad.”

Jukai bit his lip. It was not sad. It was just different. But he didn’t dare say anything. Hyakkimaru was tapping his hands trying to understand what was happening. 

“Come, sire,” one of the samurai suggested but was silenced by the boy’s hand.

“What is he doing now?” The Lord’s son asked.

“He wants to know what is happening.”

“Then tell him. I wish to see. If I’m going to rule someday then I should know this.”

Jukai tried to efficiently tell Hyakkimaru that there was an important person nearby and to be still. Hyakkimaru of course didn’t understand what important person meant and pointed to Jukai. Jukai told him no and gestured toward the Lord’s son as respectfully as he could. Then he pushed Hyakkimaru’s back to get him to bow. Hyakkimaru stiffy did it but clearly was confused by why this was all happening. 

The Lord’s son rode off and the samurai left them alone. 

Jukai didn’t take Hyakkimaru back to town with him for fear of retaliation of the townsfolk. They already gossiped about why he would raise such a “poor soul.” 

Jukai continued down the road toward where he hoped Hyakkimaru was still alive. But based off the mountain village he had just passed through, he had learned that he did survive the attack and had regained his nose. 

Jukai hoped that he had gotten better about bathing and laughed to himself as he pressed onward. 

…

Hyakkimaru was still as Dororo spoke with the young Lord who introduced himself as Tahomaru. There was something about Tahomaru. Hyakkimaru didn’t have all the words to describe what he sensed. But something was strange and familiar about Tahomaru, and he found all his focus was on Tahomaru. What was it? It was similar to how Hyakkimaru perceived himself. Was Tahomaru like Hyakkimaru in some way? He didn’t seem to be missing anything or using prosthetics like Hyakkimaru. 

But then something shifted in their bodies. 

“What’s wrong, Aniki?” Dororo asked him, pulling him from his thoughts. “Sorry, he’s blind, he sees with his soul.” 

Sees with his soul. Dororo explained that often. Hyakkimaru really didn’t understand that at all. He would ask him when they were alone. Something about Tahomaru and the others made him even more nervous to speak. Dororo said they looked wealthy… he didn’t know what that meant though really either. 

They were speaking about him again and he tried to focus on their words. 

Coins clinked together as Dororo got paid for Hyakkimaru slaying the demon, then asked about the town nearby that they were heading to.

“Come on, Aniki.” Hyakkimaru tried to stay behind Dororo and moved a little slowly so that he was sure he would not trip in these people’s presence. 

“Your name?” Tahomaru asked. 

Rolling his shoulders, he got his tongue ready. He hadn’t yet said his own name correctly, but he needed to say something. He had to, he just felt it, and it was rare that anyone other than Dororo asked him anything directly. “Hya-kkimaru,” he said pleased with himself.

“Hyakkimaru,” Tahomaru echoed as he walked away to catch up to Dororo before he lost him.

He said it and someone other than Dororo understood!

He looked back over his shoulder. 

“Come on, Aniki,” Dororo called and Hyakkimaru caught up to him tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention.

“See?” He asked. “What does it mean?”

“You know, seeing, Hyakkimaru-Aniki,” Dororo explained impatiently. 

Hyakkimaru planted his feet, confident after communicating with Tahomaru. “No. What?” He remembered the heat and how it is light. “See?” He pointed up. 

Dororo sighed. “Yes, I can see light. I see it with my eyes. You remember which are your eyes, right?”

Hyakkimaru touched his eyes tentatively. He felt… a twinge in his gut thinking about and feeling his prosthetics there.

“Yeah. I see with my eyes.”

“I don’t have eyes,” he said flatly. “I don’t see, then?”

There was the sound of shuffling of feet which Hyakkimaru was coming to associate with Dororo being nervous. 

“No, Hyakkimaru-aniki, you can’t see. You’re blind.” That word. That’s what it meant. Dororo made a thinking noise. “The priest is blind too. He said that you see with your soul… I don’t fully know what is though. Just that people are white, demons are red—”

Hyakkimaru held up his hand. He heard that before. “What is soul?”

“It’s something everyone has. It is you within your body,” Dororo explained haltingly. “Maybe we can ask the priest more because to be honest, Aniki, I don’t understand it either. Just that all things have souls. Like me.” Dororo danced around. “Your head moves as you sense me. You can’t see me, but you still sense me. You may not sense the dirt and trampled dead grass I’m on, but you sense me. I guess you sense my soul, and now you can hear me too.”

Hyakkimaru nodded slowly. That twinge in his gut grew and twisted. Just like hearing. There was another world he wasn’t apart of. Why only him? Though he supposed at least he knew the priest was like him too. He also remembered how awful getting his ears back was and worried that his eyes would be the same. There were so many things Dororo talked about that seemed to have to do with sight.

“Don’t worry, Aniki,” Dororo said tugging his hand. “One step at a time!”

They came to the edge of the woods. The sounds of the town had been growing for a while and with each step Hyakkimaru was getting more and more on edge, walking slower and slower. But now they were at the edge of what he could sense. There was some wood in the town but there was so many people and things just floating about. Objects shifted and creaked and made noise. People called out to one another. 

He stopped dead in his tracks. Dororo pulled him along anyway chatting away about all the things around them. Heart beating fast, sweating, he walked into the bustling empty of the town. He was careful to stay close and directly behind Dororo as they walked. People rushed by them and he started not expecting the close contact.

He turned his head left and right but nothing really made much sense to him. They crossed over a bridge and he stumbled on the steps as Dororo ran ahead of him. 

“Wow!” Dororo exclaimed jolting Hyakkimaru with the harsh sound of his voice. “This is a huge town!”

As if on cue everything got louder and he stumbled as his feet encountered another step. It was old wood, he couldn’t sense it. Dororo helped him up. 

“Your ears still bother you?” Dororo asked signing as well with Hyakkimaru was grateful for as he helped him focus and ground himself.

Hyakkimaru shook his head, paused, then nodded. “So much happening,” he signed back and heard lives nearby.

“What is that boy doing?” A woman’s voice asked.  
Hyakkimaru’s cheeks went red and he remembered other people didn’t need to sign. He felt so different. He remembered being little with Two Taps going to towns and feeling like this a bit but he had Two Taps, and he supposed he didn’t know much about what the people around him were doing. Now, he was sliowly understanding that he was very different. Was it a bad different, he often asked himself. But it wouldn’t be bad if there were others like him. There had to be others like him, right? Both Kaname and Two Taps had given him sign language, they must have learned it too, right? 

Dororo pulled him along. Savory food wafted into his nose so fresh he could almost taste it. His stomach growled. 

Dororo patted his shoulder and took his hand. “There’s a play!” He bolted forward dragging Hyakkimaru with him. He nearly smashed into Dororo when he stopped suddenly to buy onigiri, then guided Hyakkimaru somewhere inside. 

People bumped and said things at him, but Dororo just pulled him along. He stumbled over feet and furrowed his brow trying to discern where it was safe to step, but people kept moving so it wasn’t ever safe. 

Finally they sat down. 

People were standing not far ahead elevated from the rest talking. But they were talking strangely. Dororo had mentioned that they were speaking formally. Hyakkimaru really couldn’t understand. What was so great about this?

He stress ate his onigiri while Dororo slowly munched on his own laughing and cheering with the crowd. What was happening? People shifted around him and he felt trapped. There was no way he could get out of this easily. He tried taking deep breaths and focusing on himself. Dororo was having fun, that was all that mattered. Hyakkimaru wanted to be brave and strong for Dororo like Two Taps. So he wouldn’t say anything. Also, he found himself more aware of his body around so many people. He found he noticed if he started to rock and immediately stilled, then tried to keep as still as possible. What did his face look like? Was it okay? He was aware of his mouth and kept it closed. He was afraid to try to laugh with the people around him because what if it didn’t look right or he didn’t sound right or misunderstood what they were doing?

A man was scolding Dororo about something. Hyakkimaru was trying to understand what. Did he need to intervene? But then it stopped before he could figure it out.

“Lord Daigo seems to be a lot like you, Anik,” Dororo said beside him. “Oh! The priest is here!”

Hyakkimaru opened his mouth to ask, but then he figured it was something Dororo could see. At least he was finally understanding the empty places now were towns and that towns were meant for seeing people. To Hyakkimaru, it was all disorienting and chaotic. There was just open space everywhere, no definite paths to follow and too many things along the sides to trail safely. 

He signed to Dororo if they could find a place that was less crowded. He pointed to his ears… and then his eyes, and winced. 

Dororo tapped his shoulder to indicate yes without saying anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is literally months later. Life happened as it always does. Hopefully the next chapter won’t take as long, things are picking up story wise and people’s paths are coming back together. I have this head canon when watching episode 11 that Hyakkimaru, though he can understand language at a passive level, would find the amount of voices as well as formal Japanese to be incredibly difficult to understand. Also I wanted to elaborate a little more on what traveling would be like in the town for him based off the flew glimpses we get of his spirit sight.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are loved <3


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